Bozkurt HB, Özdemir Ö. Changes regarding solid organ transplantation during the COVID-19 pandemic. World J Transplant 2025; 15(3): 100591 [DOI: 10.5500/wjt.v15.i3.100591]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Öner Özdemir, MD, Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Division of Allergy and Immunology, Sakarya Research and Training Hospital, Sakarya University, Medical Faculty, Adnan Menderes Cad, Adapazarı 54100, Sakarya, Türkiye. ozdemir_oner@hotmail.com
Research Domain of This Article
Immunology
Article-Type of This Article
Minireviews
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Transplant. Sep 18, 2025; 15(3): 100591 Published online Sep 18, 2025. doi: 10.5500/wjt.v15.i3.100591
Changes regarding solid organ transplantation during the COVID-19 pandemic
Hayrunnisa Bekis Bozkurt, Öner Özdemir
Hayrunnisa Bekis Bozkurt, Department of Pediatrics, Division of Allergy and Immunology, Ümraniye Research and Training Hospital, İstanbul 34400, Türkiye
Öner Özdemir, Department of Pediatrics, Division of Allergy and Immunology, Sakarya Research and Training Hospital, Sakarya University, Medical Faculty, Adapazarı 54100, Sakarya, Türkiye
Author contributions: Bozkurt HB and Özdemir Ö wrote the article.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors reported no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Öner Özdemir, MD, Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Division of Allergy and Immunology, Sakarya Research and Training Hospital, Sakarya University, Medical Faculty, Adnan Menderes Cad, Adapazarı 54100, Sakarya, Türkiye. ozdemir_oner@hotmail.com
Received: August 28, 2024 Revised: January 22, 2025 Accepted: February 13, 2025 Published online: September 18, 2025 Processing time: 240 Days and 1.3 Hours
Abstract
Coronavirus disease 2019 is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 and emerged in Wuhan, China. It affects millions of people all over the world and has caused the deaths of thousands of people. Mortality rates were higher in transplant recipients and patients awaiting transplantation due to social and psychological issues. It also affected candidates who would be transplant providers and caused the transplant chain to be broken worldwide. The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has significantly affected solid organ transplantation procedures and led to various changes in protocols and practices to ensure patient safety and increase transplant success. These include challenges in screening protocols, prioritization of cases, telemedicine and virtual consultations, modified surgical procedures, immunosuppression management, updated research and guidelines, post-transplantation process and difficulties to control side effects, difficulties in organ procurement, and patient education/support. It requires a multidisciplinary approach, close collaboration between transplant teams, and adherence to strict infection control measures to ensure the safety of both transplant recipients and healthcare providers. In this article, we compiled the most important points in an overview of this process.
Core Tip: The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic significantly affected solid organ transplantation procedures and led to various changes in protocols and practices to ensure patient safety and increase transplant success.
