The potential of cardiac allografts from donors after cardiac death at the University of Wisconsin Organ Procurement Organization.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study is to investigate the potential availability of hearts from adult donation after cardiac death (DCD) donors within an acceptable hypoxic period.


METHODS
We retrospectively reviewed a donor database from the University of Wisconsin Organ Procurement Organization Donor Tracking System between 2004 and 2006. The DCD population (n=78) was screened using our inclusion criteria for DCD cardiac donor suitability, including warm ischaemic time (WIT) limit of 30 min. In the same period, 70 hearts were donated from brain-dead donors.


RESULTS
Of 78 DCD donors, 12 (15%) met our proposed DCD cardiac donor criteria. The mean WIT of these 12 DCD donors was 21 min (range 14-29 min). When inclusion criteria are further narrowed to (1) age <30 years, (2) WIT <20 min and (3) male gender, only two out of 12 met the criteria.


CONCLUSIONS
Based on our proposed DCD cardiac donor criteria, the potential application of DCD cardiac donors would represent an increase in cardiac donation of 17% (12/70) during the 3-year period. When the criteria were narrowed to the initial 'ideal' case, only two donors met such criteria, suggesting that such 'ideal' DCD donors are rare but they do exist.
Osaki
Satoru
S
Department of Surgery, Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI 53792-3236, USA. osaki@surgery.wisc.edu
Anderson
James E
JE
Johnson
Maryl R
MR
Edwards
Niloo M
NM
Kohmoto
Takushi
T
D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D001926:Brain Death; D003643:Death; D005260:Female; D016027:Heart Transplantation; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009926:Organ Preservation / Q000379:methods; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D017678:Sex Distribution; D014019:Tissue Donors / Q000600:supply & distribution*; D009927:Tissue and Organ Procurement / Q000379:methods / Q000458:organization & administration*; D052096:Warm Ischemia; D014922:Wisconsin