NCT05087550

Multicenter Study on Organ Acquisition Costs in the Post Re-Allocation Era: Liver Transplantation

Completed Last updated 24 March 2026

What this trial tests

trial testing Liver Transplantation in Liver Transplant in 186 participants. Completed in 9 August 2023.

Timeline

13 October 2021

Primary endpoint
30 June 2023

9 August 2023

Quick facts

Lead sponsor	Methodist Health System
Status	Completed
Study type	OBSERVATIONAL
Enrollment	186
Start date	13 October 2021
Primary completion	30 June 2023
Estimated completion	9 August 2023
Sites	1 location across United States

Drugs / interventions tested

• Liver Transplantation

Conditions studied

• Liver Transplant — all drugs for Liver Transplant →

Sponsor

Methodist Health System — full company profile →

Who can join

18 and older, any sex, with Liver Transplant. Patients with the condition only — healthy volunteers not accepted.

Sponsor's own description

Organ procurement organizations (OPO) have increased organ recovery efficiency and yield and have also reduced organ acquisition charges. The new liver allocation policy came into effect in February 2020 and aims to increase access to organs for waitlist candidates with the greatest severity of illness. The urgent change was driven by the perception that patients were dying because of arbitrary boundaries and inequitable access. Critics of the new policy have highlighted the potential cost implications particularly at an OPO level. A study of five OPOs throughout the United States highlighted an increase in costs ranging from 43% - 206% despite the same volume of livers transplanted. The main reason for the cost appears to lie in organ handling and transport. This mirrors the findings of Puri and colleagues who acknowledged changes to lung transplantation at Barnes Jewish Hospital in the pre- and post-policy eras and reported a substantial decline in local donors. The new lung system has also resulted in a higher organ discard rate and ultimately higher costs. Such data has generated meaningful discussions regarding optimizing organ allocation polices, however, data from individual transplant centers is lacking in the literature. Changes at a transplant center level relating to recipient costs are likely impacted by the new policy, which could be related to patient travel, accommodation, work up etc.

Publications & conference data

No peer-reviewed publications indexed yet for this trial. Completed trials usually publish results within 12-18 months.