The United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) has approved a new way to distribute livers in the United States that broadens access to livers for the sickest patients.
Under current policy, livers are first offered to the sickest patients within the local area of the donor and then to other patients in the same local area. Under the new policy, livers would be offered first to status 1 patients within the donor's geographical region before being offered to patients designated as status 2 or 3 in that region. UNOS divides the country into 62 local areas and 11 regions.
UNOS expects the policy to lead to:
With the new policy, UNOS moves a step closer to regulations proposed by the Department of Health and Human Services last year. HHS wanted UNOS to adopt a system to distribute organs to the sickest patients without regard to geography. Implementation of the rules—now scheduled for October—was delayed after meeting the resistance of much of the transplant community, including UNOS. The government could compromise with UNOS and not require national distribution.
The new UNOS policy "strikes a good balance," said Jeremiah G. Turcotte, MD, chairman of UNOS's liver and intestinal organ transplantation committee. "We think this change offers the most urgent patients a greater opportunity for receiving an organ without significantly affecting transplant access or outcomes for other patients," he said.
For Your Information:
UNOS statement
www.unos.org/newsroom/archive_newsrelease_19990625_liver.htm
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