UNOS policy change benefits high‐priority patients without harming those at low priority

摘要

The heart transplantation policy change (PC) has improved outcomes in high‐acuity (Old 1A, New 1–3) patients, but the effect on low‐priority (Old 1B/2, New 4–6) patients is unknown. We sought to determine if low‐priority patient outcomes were compromised by benefits to high‐priority patients by evaluating for interaction between PC and priority status (PS). We included adult first‐time heart transplant candidates and recipients from the UNOS registry during a 19‐month period before and after the PC. We compared clinical characteristics and performed competing risks and survival analyses stratified by PC and PS. There was a dependence of PC and PS on waitlist death/deterioration with an interaction sub‐distribution hazard ratio (adjusted sdHR) of 0.59 (0.45–0.78), p‐value?