During their site reviews, UNOS surveyors identified the top five issues related to extra vessels policy violations:
- Extra vessels may only be used in transplant patients
- The extra vessel label must indicate “For use in organ transplantation only”
- Transplant centers must notify OPTN/UNOS when extra vessels are used, destroyed or shared
- Hepatitis C antibody positive and Hepatitis B surface antigen positive extra vessels cannot be stored
- Extra vessels can only be stored for 14 days
Don’t forget:
- As of February 1st, OPOs are required to label the extra vessels container with the donor’s recovery date, ABO, infectious disease results, the UNOS Donor ID, and the container’s contents, in addition to the OPTN contractor’s standardized vessel label that must be affixed to the outermost barrier.
- Transplant centers must store extra vessels in a rigid, sterile, sealed container that is protected by a triple sterile barrier (one of which must be the rigid container). You must label the rigid container with the donor’s recovery date, ABO, ABO subtype when used for allocation, infectious disease results, the UNOS Donor ID, and the container’s contents, in addition to the OPTN contractor’s standardized vessel label which must be affixed to the outermost barrier. If you remove the vessels from the triple sterile barrier, you must re-label the vessels before storing them.
Ordering Labels
- Order your 5×7 OPTN extra vessels labels from the OPTN store
- Download PDF versions* of 2×5 inch and 2×4 inch formats of extra vessels container labels (you may print and sterilize these as needed)
* Find up-to-date vessel resources on the patient safety page.
