Anji Wall M.D.

Wall, A., G. H. Lee, J. Maldonado and D. Magnus (2019). “Medical Contraindications to Transplant Listing in the USA: A Survey of Adult and Pediatric Heart, Kidney, Liver, and Lung Programs.” World Journal of Surgery 43(9): 2300-2308.

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INTRODUCTION: Listing practices for solid organ transplantation are variable across programs in the USA. To better characterize this variability, we performed a survey of psychosocial listing criteria for pediatric and adult heart, lung, liver, and kidney programs in the USA. In this manuscript, we report our results regarding listing practices with respect to obesity, advanced age, and HIV seropositivity. METHODS: We performed an online, forced-choice survey of adult and pediatric heart, kidney, liver, and lung transplant programs in the USA. RESULTS: Of 650 programs contacted, 343 submitted complete responses (response rate = 52.8%). Most programs have absolute contraindications to listing for BMI > 45 (adult: 67.5%; pediatric: 88.0%) and age > 80 (adult: 55.4%; pediatric: not relevant). Only 29.5% of adult programs and 25.7% of pediatric programs consider HIV seropositivity an absolute contraindication to listing. We found that there is variation in absolute contraindications to listing in adult programs among organ types for BMI > 45 (heart 89.8%, lung 92.3%, liver 49.1%, kidney 71.9%), age > 80 (heart 83.7%, lung 76.9%, liver 68.4%, kidney 29.2%), and HIV seropositivity (heart 30.6%, lung 59.0%, kidney 16.9%, liver 28.1%). CONCLUSIONS: We argue that variability in listing enhances access to transplantation for potential recipients who have the ability to pursue workup at different centers by allowing different programs to have different risk thresholds. Programs should remain independent in listing practices, but because these practices differ, we recommend transparency in listing policies and informing patients of reasons for listing denial and alternative opportunities to seek listing at another program.

Johannesson, L., A. Wall, J. M. Putman, L. Zhang, G. Testa and C. Diaz-Garcia (2019). “Rethinking the time interval to embryo transfer after uterus transplantation-DUETS (Dallas UtErus Transplant Study).” BJOG Jul 8. [Epub ahead of print].

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The first successful live birth after uterus transplantation occurred in 2014. Since then, successful live births have been replicated, offering hope to women with uterine factor infertility who want to carry a pregnancy . . . Uterus transplant can allow women to carry their own pregnancy. Because of the transplant operation, infectious disease risks, and immunosuppressive medications, these pregnancies require careful planning. Conditions to achieve before ET include stable uterine graft function, absence of active rejection, stable immunosuppressive medication with agents with low teratogenic risk, and low‐risk status for harmful opportunistic infections. Our experience, the experience of other uterus transplant programmes, and results of successful pregnancies in other solid organ transplant recipients suggest ET could be considered as soon as 3 months after uterus transplantation if the above criteria are met. Given the unique characteristics of uterus transplantation and the recipient population, the transplant‐to‐ET interval should differ from recommendations in other organ and vascular allograft transplantations. The incentive of minimising the recipient‐graft time and concomitant exposure to immunosuppressants in this young, healthy patient population strongly supports shortening the transplant‐to‐ET time. (Excerpts from text, p. 1, 4; no abstract available.)

Wall, A., G. H. Lee, J. Maldonado and D. Magnus (2019). “Medical Contraindications to Transplant Listing in the USA: A Survey of Adult and Pediatric Heart, Kidney, Liver, and Lung Programs.” World J Surg May 20. [Epub ahead of print].

Full text of this article.

INTRODUCTION: Listing practices for solid organ transplantation are variable across programs in the USA. To better characterize this variability, we performed a survey of psychosocial listing criteria for pediatric and adult heart, lung, liver, and kidney programs in the USA. In this manuscript, we report our results regarding listing practices with respect to obesity, advanced age, and HIV seropositivity. METHODS: We performed an online, forced-choice survey of adult and pediatric heart, kidney, liver, and lung transplant programs in the USA. RESULTS: Of 650 programs contacted, 343 submitted complete responses (response rate = 52.8%). Most programs have absolute contraindications to listing for BMI > 45 (adult: 67.5%; pediatric: 88.0%) and age > 80 (adult: 55.4%; pediatric: not relevant). Only 29.5% of adult programs and 25.7% of pediatric programs consider HIV seropositivity an absolute contraindication to listing. We found that there is variation in absolute contraindications to listing in adult programs among organ types for BMI > 45 (heart 89.8%, lung 92.3%, liver 49.1%, kidney 71.9%), age > 80 (heart 83.7%, lung 76.9%, liver 68.4%, kidney 29.2%), and HIV seropositivity (heart 30.6%, lung 59.0%, kidney 16.9%, liver 28.1%). CONCLUSIONS: We argue that variability in listing enhances access to transplantation for potential recipients who have the ability to pursue workup at different centers by allowing different programs to have different risk thresholds. Programs should remain independent in listing practices, but because these practices differ, we recommend transparency in listing policies and informing patients of reasons for listing denial and alternative opportunities to seek listing at another program.

Kwong, A. J., A. Wall, M. Melcher, U. Wang, A. Ahmed, A. Subramanian and P. Y. Kwo (2019). “Liver transplantation for hepatitis C virus (HCV) non-viremic recipients with HCV viremic donors.” Am J Transplant 19(5): 1380-1387.

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In the context of organ shortage, the opioid epidemic, and effective direct-acting antiviral (DAA) therapy for hepatitis C virus (HCV), more HCV-infected donor organs may be used for liver transplantation. Current data regarding outcomes after donor-derived HCV in previously non-viremic liver transplant recipients are limited. Clinical data for adult liver transplant recipients with donor-derived HCV infection from March 2017 to January 2018 at our institution were extracted from the medical record. Ten patients received livers from donors known to be infected with HCV based on positive nucleic acid testing. Seven had a prior diagnosis of HCV and were treated before liver transplantation. All recipients were non-viremic at the time of transplantation. All 10 recipients derived hepatitis C infection from their donor and achieved sustained virologic response at 12 weeks posttreatment with DAA-based regimens, with a median time from transplant to treatment initiation of 43 days (IQR 20-59). There have been no instances of graft loss or death, with median follow-up of 380 days (IQR 263-434) posttransplant. Transplantation of HCV-viremic livers into non-viremic recipients results in acceptable short-term outcomes. Such strategies may be used to expand the donor pool and increase access to liver transplantation.

Kwong, A. J., A. Wall, M. Melcher, U. Wang, A. Ahmed, A. Subramanian and P. Y. Kwo (2018). “Liver Transplantation for HCV Non-Viremic Recipients with HCV Viremic Donors.” Am J Transplant Oct 31. [Epub ahead of print].

Full text of this article.

In the context of organ shortage, the opioid epidemic, and effective direct-acting antiviral (DAA) therapy for hepatitis C (HCV), more HCV-infected donor organs may be used for liver transplantation. Current data regarding outcomes after donor-derived HCV in previously non-viremic liver transplant recipients are limited. Clinical data for adult liver transplant recipients with donor-derived HCV infection from March 2017 to January 2018 at our institution were extracted from the medical record. Ten patients received livers from donors known to be infected with HCV based on positive nucleic acid testing (NAT). Seven had a prior diagnosis of HCV and were treated before liver transplantation. All recipients were non-viremic at the time of transplantation. All 10 recipients derived hepatitis C infection from their donor and achieved sustained virologic response at 12 weeks post-treatment (SVR-12) with DAA-based regimens, with a median time from transplant to treatment initiation of 43 days (IQR 20-59). There have been no instances of graft loss or death, with median follow-up of 380 days (IQR 263-434) post-transplant. Transplantation of HCV-viremic livers into non-viremic recipients results in acceptable short-term outcomes. Such strategies may be used to expand the donor pool and increase access to liver transplantation.