Deceased donor availability for uterus transplantation in Australia.

BACKGROUND: Uterus transplantation is an emerging treatment option for uterine factor infertility. Most uterus transplantation research programs use living donors, although this comes with considerable surgical and psychological risks and not all women desiring uterus transplantation will have an available living donor. A deceased donor program eliminates donor risks; however, the availability of deceased uterus donors is currently unknown in Australia. AIMS: To establish the feasibility of a deceased donor uterus transplantation program in Australia and consider expanded inclusion criteria for this model. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective review of the New South Wales (NSW) Organ and Tissue Donation Service database was undertaken to identify potential deceased uterus donors, with comparison to the broad deceased donor inclusion criteria from three international uterus transplantation trials including female, brain-dead, multi-organ donation, no major abdominal surgery, and <60 years of age. RESULTS: Between January 1, 2018, and December 31, 2022, 648 deceased donors were available in NSW. Of these, 43% (279/648) were female and 67% of the women (187/279) were also multi-organ donors. When the brain-dead donor-only and age criteria (<60 years) were applied, a total of 107 deceased donors met the available criteria for uterus transplantation, with an average of 21 deceased donors per year in NSW. CONCLUSIONS: There appears to be adequate deceased donor organ availability to establish a deceased uterus transplantation program in NSW, Australia. Should interest in uterus transplantation increase, including criteria such as older and nulliparous donors could increase organ availability for a uterus transplantation program.

The first Australian uterus transplantation procedure: A result of a long-term Australian-Swedish research collaboration.

AIMS: The aim is to report the results of Australia's first uterus transplantation (UTx). METHODS: Following long-standing collaboration between the Swedish and Australian teams, Human Research Ethics approval was obtained to perform six UTx procedures in a collaborative multi-site research study (Western Sydney Local District Health 2019/ETH13038), including Royal Hospital for Women, Prince of Wales Hospital, and Westmead Hospital in New Souh Wales. Surgeries were approved in both the live donor (LD) and deceased donor models in collaboration with the inaugural Swedish UTx team. RESULTS: This is the first UTx procedure to occur in Australia, involving a mother donating her uterus to her daughter. The total operative time for the donor was 9 h 54 min. Concurrently, recipient surgery was synchronised to minimise graft ischaemic time, and the total operative time for the recipient was 6 h 12 min. Surgery was by laparotomy in the LD and recipient. The total warm ischaemic time of the graft was 1 h 53 min, and the cold ischaemic time was 2 h 17 min (total ischaemic time 4 h 10 min). The patient's first menstruation occurred 33 days after the UTx procedure. CONCLUSION: Twenty-five years of Swedish and Australian collaboration has led to Australia's first successfully performed UTx surgery at The Royal Hospital for Women, Sydney, Australia.