VitalMatch · Data summary
Lung discard varies markedly across the eleven OPTN regions — a signal of practice variation, not just donor mix, and an opportunity for consistent objective assessment.
Source: OPTN/UNOS STAR file, Dec 2025 release · lung donors by REGION of recovery (pooled, all years).
The highest-discard region (Region 2, 15.0%) discards lungs at 3.3× the rate of the lowest (Region 6, 4.6%). Some of this is donor case-mix; the residual is practice variation that standardized assessment could compress.
01 · Regional spread
Discarded ÷ recovered lungs, pooled across years, for each of the eleven regions. Highest highlighted, lowest muted.
02 · Region key
OPTN's regions are geographic groupings of donation service areas. Virginia and Vermont are split across two regions each.
| Region | States & territories | Discard | Donors |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CT · ME · MA · NH · RI · E. VT | 8.9% | 1,674 |
| 2 | DE · DC · MD · NJ · PA · WV · N. VA | 15.0% | 6,644 |
| 3 | AL · AR · FL · GA · LA · MS · PR | 7.3% | 9,093 |
| 4 | OK · TX | 6.0% | 6,720 |
| 5 | AZ · CA · NV · NM · UT | 5.8% | 9,144 |
| 6 | AK · HI · ID · MT · OR · WA | 4.6% | 1,977 |
| 7 | IL · MN · ND · SD · WI | 9.6% | 5,206 |
| 8 | CO · IA · KS · MO · NE · WY | 7.1% | 4,770 |
| 9 | NY · W. VT | 10.0% | 1,842 |
| 10 | IN · MI · OH | 8.0% | 6,093 |
| 11 | KY · NC · SC · TN · VA | 7.8% | 6,691 |