Transplantation of solid organs from donors with active SARS‐CoV‐2 infection has been advised against due to the possibility of disease transmission to the recipient. However, with the exception of lungs, conclusive data for productive infection of transplantable organs do not exist. While such data are awaited, the organ shortage continues to claim thousands of lives each year. In this setting, we put forth a strategy to transplant otherwise healthy extrapulmonary organs from SARS‐CoV‐2‐infected donors. We transplanted 10 kidneys from five deceased donors with new detection of SARS‐CoV‐2 RNA during donor evaluation in early 2021. Kidney donor profile index ranged from 3% to 56%. All organs had been turned down by multiple other centers. Without clear signs or symptoms, the veracity of timing of SARS‐CoV‐2 infection could not be confirmed. With 8–16 weeks of follow‐up, outcomes for all 10 patients and allografts have been excellent. All have been free of signs or symptoms of donor‐derived SARS‐CoV‐2 infection. Our findings raise important questions about the nature of SARS‐CoV‐2 RNA detection in potential organ donors and suggest underutilization of exceptionally good extrapulmonary organs with low risk for disease transmission.

Coronavirus disease‐19 has had a marked impact on the transplant population and processes of care for transplant centers and organ allocation. Several single‐center studies have reported successful utilization of deceased donors with positive severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) tests. Our aims were to characterize testing, organ utilization, and transplant outcomes with donor SARS‐CoV‐2 status in the United States. We used Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients data from March 12, 2020 to August 31, 2021 including a custom file with SARS‐CoV‐2 testing data. There were 35 347 donor specimen SARS‐CoV‐2 tests, 77.5% upper respiratory samples, 94.6% polymerase chain reaction tests, and 1.2% SARS‐CoV‐2–positive tests. Donor age, gender, history of hypertension, and diabetes were similar by SARS‐CoV‐2 status, while positive SARS‐CoV‐2 donors were more likely African‐American, Hispanic, and donors after cardiac death ( p ‐values <.01). Recipient demographic characteristics were similar by donor SARS CoV‐2 status. Adjusted donor kidney discard (odds ratio = 2.08, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.66–2.61) was higher for SARS‐CoV‐2–positive donors while donor liver (odds ratio = 0.44, 95% CI 0.33–0.60) and heart recovery (odds ratio = 0.44, 95% CI 0.31–0.63) were significantly reduced. Overall post‐transplant graft survival for kidney, liver, and heart recipients was comparable by donor SARS‐CoV‐2 status. Cumulatively, there has been significantly lower utilization of SARS‐CoV‐2 donors with no evidence of reduced recipient graft survival with variations in practice over time.

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