Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hepatol. Dec 27, 2021; 13(12): 2161-2167
Published online Dec 27, 2021. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v13.i12.2161
Managing liver transplantation during the COVID-19 pandemic: A survey among transplant centers in the Southeast United States
Adalberto Jose Gonzalez, Nikhil Kapila, Emmanuel Thomas, Antonio Pinna, Andreas Tzakis, Xaralambos Bobby Zervos
Adalberto Jose Gonzalez, Department of Gastroenterology, Cleveland Clinic Florida, Weston, FL 33324, United States
Nikhil Kapila, Antonio Pinna, Andreas Tzakis, Xaralambos Bobby Zervos, Department of Transplant, Cleveland Clinic Florida, Weston, FL 33331, United States
Emmanuel Thomas, Schiff Center for Liver Diseases, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL 33136, United States
Emmanuel Thomas, Sylvester Cancer Center, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL 33136, United States
Author contributions: Gonzalez AJ and Kapila N wrote the initial manuscript; Thomas E, Pinna A, Tzakis A, and Zervos XB devised the study design and questionnaire and edited the manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: The study did not require approval by the Cleveland Clinic Florida IRB as it was a survey study and did not involve patient data.
Informed consent statement: Informed consent was not needed as no patients were enrolled in this study.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There are no conflicts of interest to report.
Data sharing statement: Data is available upon reasonable request.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE statement, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE statement checklist of items.
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: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Xaralambos Bobby Zervos, DO, Doctor, Department of Transplant, Cleveland Clinic Florida, 2950 Cleveland Clinic Blvd, Weston, FL 33331, United States. zervosx@ccf.org
Received: March 26, 2021
Peer-review started: March 26, 2021
First decision: June 15, 2021
Revised: June 29, 2021
Accepted: October 17, 2021
Article in press: October 17, 2021
Published online: December 27, 2021
Processing time: 275 Days and 16.2 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic tremendously affected solid organ transplantation around the world, but little information has been published regarding adaptation from transplant centers. We performed a survey study of 11 Liver transplant (LT) centers in the southeastern United States. 100% of transplant centers made adjustments. COVID-19 testing of transplant candidates, virtual clinic visits, and use of remote allocation of staff were among the most commonly utilized strategies. These strategies can be advantageously used in LT centers in the future. We recommend contingency plans be in place in case of future unprecedented states of emergency.