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Why must a donor heart be transplanted within a few hours after removal?
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British surgeon Andrew Ready flushing a donated kidney during a transplant at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, England, 2006.
A donor heart must be transplanted quickly—ideally within four hours of removal—because the heart is highly sensitive to the lack of a blood supply. Without oxygenated blood, organs undergo rapid deterioration, and the heart is particularly susceptible to damage compared to other organs like the kidneys.12
At body temperature, irreversible destruction of heart tissue can occur within 10 to 30 minutes of being deprived of blood. While cooling the organ in a cold salt solution slows this process, it cannot stop it entirely. Because the heart cannot be preserved for long periods without significant damage, the harvesting and implantation processes must be performed as quickly as possible to ensure the graft remains viable for the recipient.132