Renal transplantation using non-heart-beating donors: a potential solution to the organ donor shortage in Canada.
BACKGROUND
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) micromol/L; 44.6% of donors died secondary to trauma. We estimated 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 between 30% and 87%.


CONCLUSIONS
The cadaveric renal transplantation rate could improve significantly if non-heart-beating donors were used in Canadian hospitals.
Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ont.
Julie D
JD
Lacroix
John E
JE
Mahoney
Greg A
GA
Knoll
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002102:Cadaver; D005260:Female; D006084:Graft Rejection; D006085:Graft Survival; D006801:Humans; D007676:Kidney Failure, Chronic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000601:surgery*; D016030:Kidney Transplantation / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009864:Ontario; D012042:Registries; D018570:Risk Assessment; D014019:Tissue Donors / Q000600:supply & distribution*; D009927:Tissue and Organ Procurement / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*