OBJECTIVES Demand for heart transplant donors worldwide continues to outstrip supply. Transplanting hearts following donation after circulatory-determined death (DCD) is increasingly recognized as a safe and effective alternative. As the fourth centre worldwide to have established such a programme, our goal was to present our initial experience. METHODS This was a single-centre retrospective observational study. All DCD hearts were retrieved using direct procurement and perfusion. Continuous normothermic perfusion of the procured heart was then established on the TransMedics® Organ Care System. The primary outcome of this study was the 30-day survival rate. RESULTS Between May 2017 and December 2018, 8 DCD hearts were procured and 7 were subsequently implanted, including in 2 patients who had left ventricular assist devices explanted. During the same time period, 30 patients received donation after brainstem death heart transplants. Therefore, the DCD heart transplant programme led to a 23% increase in transplant activity. The median donation warm ischaemic time was 34 min [interquartile range (IQR) 31–39 min]. The median functional warm ischaemic time was 28 min (IQR 25–30 min). The median time spent by the organ on the Organ Care System was 263 min (IQR 242–296 min). The overall 30-day survival rate was 100% and the 90-day survival rate was 86%. Postoperative extracorporeal membrane oxygenation was required in 3/7 (43%). CONCLUSIONS DCD heart transplants can lead to a 23% increase in heart transplant activity and should be adopted by more institutions across the world. Already established transplant programmes with good early outcomes can start such a programme safely.

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OBJECTIVES National guidelines advocate the use of clinical prediction models to estimate perioperative mortality for patients undergoing lung resection. Several models have been developed that may potentially be useful but contemporary external validation studies are lacking. The aim of this study was to validate existing models in a multicentre patient cohort. METHODS The Thoracoscore, Modified Thoracoscore, Eurolung, Modified Eurolung, European Society Objective Score and Brunelli models were validated using a database of 6600 patients who underwent lung resection between 2012 and 2018. Models were validated for in-hospital or 30-day mortality (depending on intended outcome of each model) and also for 90-day mortality. Model calibration (calibration intercept, calibration slope, observed to expected ratio and calibration plots) and discrimination (area under receiver operating characteristic curve) were assessed as measures of model performance. RESULTS Mean age was 66.8 years (±10.9 years) and 49.7% (n = 3281) of patients were male. In-hospital, 30-day, perioperative (in-hospital or 30-day) and 90-day mortality were 1.5% (n = 99), 1.4% (n = 93), 1.8% (n = 121) and 3.1% (n = 204), respectively. Model area under the receiver operating characteristic curves ranged from 0.67 to 0.73. Calibration was inadequate in five models and mortality was significantly overestimated in five models. No model was able to adequately predict 90-day mortality. CONCLUSIONS Five of the validated models were poorly calibrated and had inadequate discriminatory ability. The modified Eurolung model demonstrated adequate statistical performance but lacked clinical validity. Development of accurate models that can be used to estimate the contemporary risk of lung resection is required.