Background: The number of candidates in need of pancreas transplantation is far larger than the number of organ donors. To expand the organ pool, there has been increased used of OPTN-defined increased risk (IR) donors (D). The utilization and epidemiology of infectious disease marker positivity of these IR pancreas alone (PA) and simultaneous kidney-pancreas (SPK) donors has not been previously described.

Methods: We obtained data from the US OPTN to perform a blinded assessment of transplant center-specific utilization of OPTN-defined increased risk donors and the epidemiology of infectious disease marker positivity of PA and SPK IRDs and non-IRDs from July 2004 – December 2014. Student's T-test was used to compare groups.

Results: IRDs accounted for 5.5 – 11.7% of PA donors during the study period (see Table 1) and over time there was a trend towards increased utilization of IRDs. Of the 141 US PA transplant centers 33 (23.4%) had ≥ 10% utilization of IRDs while 72 (50.1%) did not utilize any OPTN-defined IRDs during the 8.5 years studied (See Figure 1).

IRDs accounted for 5.6 – 12.4% of SPK donors during the study period (see Table 2) and over time there was a trend towards increased utilization of IRDs. Of the 150 US SPK transplant centers, 50 (33.3%) had ≥ 10% utilization of IRDs while 34 (22.7%) did not utilize any OPTN-defined IRDs during the 8.5 years studied (See Figure 2).

There was only rare utilization of HBsAg, HBcAb and HCV seropositive organs in PA and SPK transplants.

Conclusions: There is significant variability in the use of OPTN-defined IRDs by US PA and SKP transplant centers and seropositive organs were rarely used. Further analysis is ongoing to assess the outcomes of both groups.

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