title: Medical Students for Tissue Procurement, a 10-Year Experience in a Large University Hospital: An Exportable Model?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The objective of this study was to describe tissue procurement activity performed during 10 years (2004-2014) by trained medical students in a large university hospital.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this study, third to sixth year medical students were trained as in-hospital Tissue Coordinators (Tc) to perform tissue procurement activity on a 24/7 schedule supervised by an on-call senior Transplant Coordinator (sTC) in a large university hospital. Tc duty consisted of detection, initial evaluation of all hospital deaths, donor's family approach for tissue donation, and retrieval logistics organization, including corneal tissue retrieval after training and certification. They also assist sTC in organ procurement activity.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 18,931 deaths were prospectively evaluated, 79% of whom (n = 14,879) presented medical contraindications for tissue donation. Of the remaining 4052 (21%) potential tissue donors (PTD), 2522 (62%) were not converted into real donors, mostly due to family refusal (66%; n = 1650) followed by detection system failure and other logistical issues (34%; n = 872). A total of 2814 corneal units, 225 skin donations, 327 muscleskeletal tissue donations, 91 blood vessels donations, and 177 heart valve donations were obtained from the remaining 1530 (38%) real donors. Tissue potentiality increased from 19% to 43% throughout the study period as a consequence of the fluctuating acceptance criteria used by tissue banks depending on tissue demand.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The tissue donation program performed by trained students was successful in achieving a high and sustainable tissue donation rate in a large university hospital.
authors.affiliation: Vall d'Hebron University Hospital, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rodríguez
authors.affiliation: Vall d'Hebron University Hospital, Barcelona, Spain. Electronic address: albertosandiumenge@gmail.com.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sandiumenge
authors.affiliation: Joseph Trueta University Hospital, Girona, Spain.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Masnou
authors.affiliation: Vall d'Hebron University Hospital, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gómez
authors.affiliation: Vall d'Hebron University Hospital, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Margarit
authors.affiliation: Vall d'Hebron University Hospital, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Ferrer-Gracia
authors.affiliation: Vall d'Hebron University Hospital, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Carbonell
authors.affiliation: Banc de Sang i Teixits, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Navarro
authors.affiliation: Vall d'Hebron University Hospital, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Pont
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006785:Hospitals, University; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013030:Spain; D013337:Students, Medical; D014015:Tissue Banks; D014019:Tissue Donors; D009927:Tissue and Organ Procurement