Shortage of Donors for Intestinal Transplantation in São Paulo, Brazil.
BACKGROUND
The number of deceased organ donors has decreased slightly over the past 4 years. Although the pool of intestinal transplantation candidates is relatively small, donor allocation is challenging because of the inability to maintain the donor in a good condition and the complexities involved in making a suitable weight match between donors and recipients. Our goal was to analyze the epidemiologic profile of potential donors based on the organs offered by the regional Organ Procurement Organization from Hospital das Clinicas-USP (OPO/HC-USP) and attempt to estimate possible matches and program viability.


METHODS
We retrospectively analyzed information from the OPO/HC-USP database regarding organs offered over the past 7 years as well as patients listed in our program. Data were collected regarding donor characteristics (eg, sex, age, race, body mass index, blood type, cause of death) and medical care details (eg, intensive care unit stay, use of vasopressor agents and antibiotics).


RESULTS
In this time period, there were 18,103 brain death notifications in the state of São Paulo; 5,202 (35%) became viable donors, resulting in 5,201 (99%) effectively used livers and kidneys. Most potential donors were male, in their 40s, white, and had blood type O. Only 3 potential donors from OPO/HC-USP would have reached the established minimum criteria for intestinal donation over these 7 years.
Department of Gastroenterology, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
I L
IL
Calil
Department of Gastroenterology, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
G M
GM
Andrade
Department of Gastroenterology, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil. Electronic address: fgalvao@usp.br.
F H
FH
Galvao
Department of Gastroenterology, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
A Z A
AZ
Leite
Department of Gastroenterology, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
R A
RA
Pecora
Department of Gastroenterology, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
A W
AW
Lee
Department of Gastroenterology, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
L A C
LA
D'Albuquerque
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001926:Brain Death; D001938:Brazil; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006761:Hospitals; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007362:Intensive Care Units; D007422:Intestines / Q000637:transplantation*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010288:Parenteral Nutrition / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014019:Tissue Donors / Q000600:supply & distribution*; D055815:Young Adult