Little is known about patient perceptions regarding HCV+ organ use in non-HCV infected recipients. This study examined factors influencing the decision to accept HCV+ organs and the resulting impacts.
Adult lung transplant (LT) patients or candidates who had consented to receive an HCV+ organ completed a survey including multiple choice, a 5-point Likert scale, and free-text answers. A total of 67 LT recipients or candidates who had consented to receive HCV+ organs were enrolled of which 21/67(31%) received HCV+ lungs, 39 (58%) HCV- lungs, and 7(10%) were still waiting.
Pre-transplant, 50/67(75%) patients felt it was either “completely safe” or “very safe” to accept an HCV+ organ. Although 22/67(33%) said they never or rarely took risks, they still made the decision to accept an HCV+ organ. Common reported reasons were desperation, perception of having ‘no choice’, and increasing symptom severity. In the subset of patients that were transplanted with an HCV+ organ (n = 21), only 12.5% reported second thoughts about accepting. Post-transplant, the majority (87.5%) never felt any anxiety about HCV and most (83%) reported no impact from HCV. Perception of treatment tolerability and ease was highly favourable.
Use of HCV+ organs demonstrated minimal detrimental perceived impacts on lung transplant patients. Patients generally found the experience to be very positive. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

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