key: cord-0965482-h913ug91
authors: Frattaroli, Paola; Anjan, Shweta; Coro, Ana; Simkins, Jacques; Vianna, Rodrigo; Morsi, Mahmoud; Abbo, Lilian; Guerra, Giselle; Natori, Yoichiro
title: Is it safe to perform abdominal transplantation from SARS‐CoV‐2 polymerase chain reaction positive donors?
date: 2021-07-20
journal: Transpl Infect Dis
DOI: 10.1111/tid.13688
sha: bc1a9f9cfbff8d67dfc33c57379efe7b8f20ac2a
doc_id: 965482
cord_uid: h913ug91

nan

To the Editor:

We read "Kidney transplantation from a SARS-CoV-2-positive donor for the recipients with immunity after COVID-19" by Puodziukaite et al. with great interest. 1 This was a case report about the transplantation of two kidneys from a donor with active coronavirus disease 2019

COVID-19 pandemic has created new challenges for health care systems around the world and also has directly affected solid organ transplantation (SOT) including donation. 2 The ongoing pandemic has not decreased the need for SOT, and a global concern has been safe transplantation during this time. 3 During a pandemic, the potential organ donation pool should be affected, which raises the question of how to approach a possible donor with history of COVID-19. One report mentioned the possibility of donor-derived severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection in lung transplantation that may affect all types of transplant recipients. 4 On the other hand, successful heart and liver transplant from SARS-CoV-2 polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-positive donor has been reported. 5 This suggests there should potentially be a concern in lung transplantation, but still this is unclear in other transplants whether we can use these donors safely. We report successful kidney transplantation from nasopharyngeal (NP) swab PCR-positive donor to two PCR-negative recipients, and additional two recipients (one kidney and one liver) whose donor had active history of COVID-19, but SARS-CoV-2 PCR achieved negativity at the time of procurement. We did not modify induction or maintenance immunosuppressive medication or add any SARS-CoV-2-specific treatment despite of the donor PCR positivity.

During surgery, SARS-CoV-2 infection precaution methods including wearing N95 masks and using negative pressure surgery rooms were implemented.

The donor was a 19-year-old male with no known history of SARS-CoV-2 infection. The cause of death was determined to be due to a gun shot. There was no documented evidence of respiratory symptoms. 

Yoichiro Natori https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4938-125X

Kidney transplantation from a SARS-CoV-2-positive donor for the recipients with immunity after COVID-19

Organ procurement and transplantation during the COVID-19 pandemic

COVID-19: a global transplant perspective on successfully navigating a pandemic

Donor to recipient transmission of SARS-CoV-2 by lung transplantation despite negative donor upper respiratory tract testing

Heart and liver transplant recipients from donor with positive SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR at time of transplantation

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Paola Frattaroli, Shweta Anjan, and Yoichiro Natori designed the study.All authors were responsible for data interpretation and writing.