title: Development of a successful non-heart-beating organ donation program.
abstract: To help alleviate the organ shortage, transplant centers are using organs from expanded-criteria donors, who were considered unsuitable just a few years ago, such as non-heart-beating donors. In 1998, we made a concerted effort to increase the number of non-heart-beating donors recovered by our organ procurement organization. In this paper, we discuss the steps in establishing this program, including transplant center support, estimating the number of potential non-heart-beating donors, organ procurement support, protocol development, hospital development, education, putting the protocol into practice, follow-up, and effect of the program on organ procurement. With the establishment of this program, the number of non-heart-beating donors increased from 2% to 5% per year to over 10% for the past 2 years. From these donors, 61 of 82 recovered kidneys were transplanted into 58 patients, and 18 of 20 recovered livers were transplanted. A non-heart-beating donor program can significantly add to the number of organ transplants and successful transplantations.
authors.affiliation: LifeQuest Organ Recovery Services, Gainesville, Fla, USA.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Reiner
authors.forename: Danielle
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Cornell
authors.forename: Richard J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Howard
mesh_terms: D000359:Aftercare / Q000458:organization & administration; D001926:Brain Death; D002985:Clinical Protocols; D005431:Florida; D006323:Heart Arrest; D006801:Humans; D007318:Inservice Training / Q000458:organization & administration; D015969:National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, U.S., Health and Medicine Division; D020380:Needs Assessment; D010564:Personnel, Hospital / Q000193:education; D016730:Program Development / Q000379:methods*; D009927:Tissue and Organ Procurement / Q000458:organization & administration*; D019737:Transplants / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000600:supply & distribution*; D014481:United States