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- Title
Renal transplantation using non-heart-beating donors: a potential solution to the organ donor shortage in Canada.
- Authors
Lacroix, Julie D.; Mahoney, John E.; Knoll, Greg A.
- Abstract
Introduction: There is a chronic shortage of cadaveric organ donors for renal transplantation, which might be solved by the use of non-heart-beating donors (patients who suffer cardiac arrest and whose kidneys are harvested subsequently when irreversible heart and respiratory function occur). We carried out a chart review to determine whether the renal transplantation rate would improve if a non-heart-beating donor program was introduced at a Canadian centre. Methods: We reviewed the charts of all 1547 patients who died in the emergency department or intensive care unit of the Ottawa Hospital, a tertiary care centre serving 1.2 million people in eastern Ontario, between January 1999 and May 2001. The number of potential non-heart-beating donors was determined by the use of predefined criteria. The number of additional kidneys that could be obtained with a non-heart-beating donor program was estimated and compared to the actual number of kidneys procured from conventional brain-dead donors during the same period. The potential increase in the renal transplantation rate was calculated. Results: There were 83 potential non-heart-beating donors during the 29-month study period. The mean (and standard deviation) age of the donors was 40.6 (13.1) years, and 20% were female. The mean serum creatinine value was 75 (29) µmol/L; 44.6% of donors died secondary to trauma. We esti-mated that the use of non-heart-beating donors would have provided 14 to 41 additional donors during the study period (12--34 kidneys/yr). The cadaveric renal transplantation rate would have increased be-tween 30% and 87%. Conclusion: The cadaveric renal transplantation rate could improve significantly if non-heart-beating donors were used in Canadian hospitals.
- Subjects
CANADA; KIDNEY transplantation; TRANSPLANTATION of organs, tissues, etc.; NON-heart-beating organ donation; ORGAN donation
- Publication
Canadian Journal of Surgery, 2004, Vol 47, Issue 1, p10
- ISSN
0008-428X
- Publication type
Article