An analysis of data on heart and lung transplant recipients indicates that patients who had transplant surgery performed at nighttime did not have a significantly different rate of survival up to one year after organ transplantation compared to patients who received surgery during the day, according to a study in the June 1 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. ?

Researchers analyzed data from the United Network for Organ Sharing database from January 2000 through June 2010. Primary stratification was by operative time of day (night, 7 p.m. - 7 a.m.; day, 7 a.m. - 7 p.m.). A total of 27,118 patients were included in the study population.?

This is one of the first papers to suggest that fatigue, sleep deprivation and odd hours really don't hurt the patient. It's a surprising finding," said Ashish S. Shah, an assistant professor of surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the study's lead author.  "While we've felt this, other papers have suggested patients are at risk if they are treated at night. For patients undergoing heart and lung transplants, everything is fine—regardless of the hour, our study shows."

Heart and lung transplants are done whenever scarce organs become available, without regard for the clock or how much work a surgeon has already done that day, Shah noted, likely making results of the Hopkins study especially reassuring to patients and surgical teams.