First Circulatory Death Heart Transplant in U.S.

The first transplant in the U.S. of an adult heart into a recipient through a process known as Donation after Circulatory Death, or DCD, was performed by surgeons at Duke University Hospital, Durham, N.C., one of five centers in the U.S. that has been approved to perform DCD heart transplants as part of a recently launched clinical trial of a device to circulate warm, oxygenated blood through organs.

Traditionally, heart donations have depended on a declaration of brain death. Donation after circulatory death occurs after the heart has stopped beating and the person's death has been declared. DCD transplantation is done regularly in the U.S. for organs other than the heart...