title: Impact of regulations on tissue donation: mandatory referral of hospital deaths.
abstract: In Buenos Aires province, there has been surprisingly less tissue procurement activity following cardiac arrest than after brain-death cases. The purpose of this study was to analyse the impact of a regulation that made referral of all irreversible cardiac arrests mandatory to our organ procurement organisation. Data were collected from 7 hospitals in La Plata city during 7 months (from June 2000 to December 2000). The results showed that the regulation was effective because there was a striking increment of tissue procured following cardiac arrest during the analysed period, despite the low efficacy of the regulation (the referrals were 48% of the dead patients).
authors.affiliation: CUCAIBA, Procurement Service of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina.
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Soratti
authors.forename: Myrtha Ball
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Lima
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Flores
authors.forename: Ricardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ibar
mesh_terms: D017052:Hospital Mortality; D006801:Humans; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009927:Tissue and Organ Procurement / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data