What are the causes of donor heart dysfunction?
Ventricular dysfunction is often present as a result of the adverse effects of brain death on the heart; and the ischemic period during storage and transplant. Right ventricular failure may occur because the unprepared right ventricle of the donor has to perform work against the recipient’s pulmonary vascular resistance which may be elevated. Lack of reflex sympathetic enervation may diminish the heart ability to compensate for any reduction in function.
