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Comparative Study
. 2018 Nov 20;18(1):876.
doi: 10.1186/s12913-018-3691-8.

Deceased organ donation activity and efficiency in Switzerland between 2008 and 2017: achievements and future challenges

Julius Weiss  1 , Andreas Elmer  1 , Markus Béchir  2 , Christian Brunner  3 , Philippe Eckert  4 , Susann Endermann  5 , Renato Lenherr  6 , Mathias Nebiker  7 , Kai Tisljar  8 , Christoph Haberthür  9 , Franz F Immer  10 ; Comité National du Don d’Organes (CNDO)
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Deceased organ donation activity and efficiency in Switzerland between 2008 and 2017: achievements and future challenges

Julius Weiss et al. BMC Health Serv Res. .

Abstract

Background: Various actions have been taken during the last decade to increase the number of organs from deceased donors available for transplantation in Switzerland. This study provides an overview on key figures of the Swiss deceased organ donation and transplant activity between 2008 and 2017. In addition, it puts the evolution of the Swiss donation program's efficiency in relation to the situation in the neighboring countries.

Methods: This study is an analysis of prospective registry data, covering the period from 1 January 2008 to 31 December 2017. It includes all actual deceased organ donors (ADD) in Switzerland. Donor data were extracted from the Swiss Organ Allocation System. The "donor conversion index" (DCI) methodology and data was used for the comparison of donation program efficiency in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Italy and France.

Results: During the study period there were 1116 ADD in Switzerland. The number of ADD per year increased from 91 in 2008 to 145 in 2017 (+ 59%). The reintroduction of the donation after cardiocirculatory death (DCD) program in 2011 resulted in the growth of annual percentages of DCD donors, reaching a maximum of 27% in 2017. The total number of organs transplanted from ADD was 3763 (3.4 ± 1.5 transplants per donor on average). Of these, 48% were kidneys (n = 1814), 24% livers (n = 903), 12% lungs (n = 445), 9% hearts (n = 352) and 7% pancreata or pancreatic islets (n = 249). The donation program efficiency assessment showed an increase of the Swiss DCI from 1.6% in 2008 to 2.7% in 2017 (+ 69%). The most prominent efficiency growth was observed between 2012 and 2017. Even though Swiss donation efficiency increased during the study period, it remained below the DCI of the French and Austrian donation programs.

Conclusion: Swiss donation activity and efficiency grew during the last decade. The increased donation efficiency suggests that measures implemented so far were effective. The lower efficiency of the Swiss donation program, compared to the French and Austrian programs, may likely be explained by the lower consent rate in Switzerland. This issue should be addressed in order to achieve the goal of more organs available for transplantation.

Keywords: Donation after brain death (DBD); Donation after cardiocirculatory death (DCD); Donor conversion index (DCI); Organ donation; Public health; Switzerland; Transplantation.

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Conflict of interest statement

Authors’ information

JW Senior Research Associate, Swisstransplant, the Swiss National Foundation for Organ Donation and Transplantation, Bern, Switzerland; AE Research Associate, Swisstransplant, the Swiss National Foundation for Organ Donation and Transplantation, Bern, Switzerland; MB President of the CNDO, Head of donation network Luzern until 2017; CB Head of donation network Luzern; PE Head of donation network Programme Latin de Don d’Organes; SE Head of donation network St. Gallen; RL Head of donation network Donor Care Association; MN Head of donation network Schweiz-Mitte; KT Head of donation network Basel until 2017; CH Past president of the CNDO; FFI Chief executive officer, Swisstransplant, the Swiss National Foundation for Organ Donation and Transplantation, Bern, Switzerland.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

In accordance to applicable law, no ethics committee approval was required for this study which includes only aggregated and fully anonymized patient data. Patients’ next of kin are provided information about the fact that consent to posthumous organ donation implies registration in the Swiss Organ Allocation System (SOAS). The SOAS is regulated by the Organ Allocation Ordinance and operated by the Federal Office of Public Health.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Donation efficiency evolution in Switzerland and neighboring countries, 2008–2017. * 2017 donation data for Austria, Italy and Germany are utilized donors. The actual DCI of these donation programs may likely be 0.1–0.2 percentage points higher. 2008–2015 data retrieved from [14]; sources of 2016–2017 data: [15, 18, 19, 71] and SOAS
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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