ABSTRACT:
COVID-19 has created unprecedented challenges for society, and
specifically the medical community. While the pandemic continues to
unfold, the transplant community has had to pivot in order to keep
recipients, donors, and institutional transplant teams safe given the
unique circumstances inherent to solid organ transplantation.
COVID-19 continues to devastate countries and medical systems around the
world, at points leading to an inability to continue to provide safe
patient care due to systems limitations. As a result, some transplant
centers have been forced to decrease their ability to offer
transplantation in the midst of the pandemic. This has resulted in an
overall decrease in the number of transplants performed in the United
States coupled with an increased number of inactive patients on the UNOS
waiting list.1
Waitlist and transplant recipients have an increased risk for acquiring
COVID-19. It is speculated that this patient population is particularly
vulnerable and at risk for more severe disease given their
immunocompromised status (post-transplant) and the high prevalence of
comorbidities (waitlist and post-transplant).2 Given
the uncertainty surrounding the risk of transplant patients contracting
COVID-19 while on the waiting list or post-transplant, there is interest
amongst the transplant community to characterize the patients trajectory
should they become infected.