The Duke Transplant Center recently performed its 10,000th transplant per data from the Organ Procurement & Transplantation Network (OPTN data) since performing its first organ transplant, a kidney, in 1965. This is a milestone that only 18 other centers in the U.S. have achieved and the first in North Carolina to meet that mark.

The Duke Transplant Center has reached this lifesaving goal by focusing on research and innovation to expand access to organs for patients on waiting lists. Recent examples include:

• The CARMAT heart – Duke surgeons were the first in the U.S. to successfully implant a new-generation artificial heart to bridge the gap until the patient successfully received a human heart transplant.
• Heart Transplant – Duke surgeons were the first in the U.S. to perform a “donation after circulatory death” (DCD) heart transplants in adults and pediatric patients.
  • 80+ DCD heart procedures completed since being the first center to do this in 2019
• Southeast’s first living liver transplant between HIV-positive donor and recipient
• Organ preservation systems: The devices circulate warm, oxygenated blood, medications, and nutrients through the organ to preserve it and allow for testing before transplantation. It also means organs can travel farther to reach recipients
• Heart transplant’s wait time continued its trend from the last several years, reducing median time to transplant again to 63 days against a U.S. median wait time of 149 days.
• Kidney transplant also achieved high marks in their 1-year conditional survival with a functioning graft (source link).  Duke’s 1-year conditional survival rate for kidney was 99.69% against a U.S. of 97.03%.