Tissue procurement and transplantation: a Tuscany perspective.
Tissue procurement and transplantation are rarely taken into account as indicators of the efficiency of a regional donor procurement network. We present herein a retrospective review on Tuscany tissue procurement activities from 2004 until 2006. In 2003 the Tuscan Regional Government appointed a transplantation service authority to reorganize all regional donation and transplantation activities: the Organizzazione Toscana Trapianti (OTT). The regional tissue procurement network was based on either brain death (BD) and cardiac death (CD) donors under the responsibility of in-hospital transplantation coordinators (IHTCs). From 2004 to 2006, a total of 397 tissue donors were procured in Tuscany, and 4151 tissue transplantations were performed: 2909 skin grafts, 1209 bone grafts, and 33 heart valves. Over the same period, a total of 2116 cornea donors were procured; 4117 corneas were retrieved; 1779 were fit for transplantation, and 1418 were transplanted. Based on our experience, implementation of tissue procurement requires use of BD donors and paramount organizational efforts from IHTCs.
Filipponi
F
F
Organizzazione Toscana Trapianti, Regione Toscana, Florence, Italy. f.filipponi@med.unipi.it
De Simone
P
P
Saviozzi
A
A
Bozzi
G
G
D002648:Child; D006761:Hospitals / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006776:Hospitals, Pediatric / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014019:Tissue Donors / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009927:Tissue and Organ Procurement / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014180:Transplantation / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014495:Universities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data