• Department of Critical Care Medicine, Zhengzhou Seventh People's Hospital, Zhengzhou, 450016, P. R. China;
ZHENG Hua, Email: zhenghua281@21cn.com
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Objective  To explore the impact of COVID-19 positive donors on the prognosis of heart transplant recipients. Methods The Medline, EMbase, CENTRAL, CNKI, Wanfang Data, VIP and Chinese Biomedical Abstracts Database from inception to May 2023 were searched by computer for studies about impact of COVID-19 positive donors on the prognosis of heart transplant recipients. The data was extracted from all the relevant literatures, and the quality of the data was assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa score (NOS). All statistical analysis was conducted by the STATA 11.0 software. Results  A total of 10 studies (NOS score ranging from 5 to 9 points) involving 643 patients were enrolled. The pooled results demonstrated that the pooled mortality of heart transplant recipients from COVID-19 positive donors was 4% (95%CI 2%–5%). And the incidence of composite outcome, regarding graft failure, rejection and death as poor prognosis, was 7% (95%CI 5%–9%). Besides, compared with recipients from COVID-19 negative donors, the pooled odds ratio (OR) value of death in which from COVID-19 positive donors was 0.68 (95%CI 0.38–1.22, Z=1.28, P=0.200). The pooled OR value of rejection rate was 0.41 (95%CI 0.27–0.64, Z=3.97, P<0.005). For the composite outcome, the pooled OR value was 0.50 (95%CI 0.37-0.69, Z=4.30, P<0.005). In addition, there was no statistical difference in the length of hospital stay between heart transplant recipients from COVID-19 positive donors and negative donors (SMD=–0.03, 95%CI –0.22–0.15, Z=0.36, P=0.720). Conclusion  The application of heart from COVID-19-positive donor for transplantation are safe and feasible. However, further prospective studies with longer follow-up times are still needed to verify its impact on long-term outcomes.