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. 2018 Dec 4:23:828-835.
doi: 10.12659/AOT.912025.

A Single-Center Experience with an Intensivist-Led Brain-Dead Donor Management Program

Jin Park  1 , Na Rae Yang  2 , Young-Joo Lee  3 , Kyung Sook Hong  4
Affiliations

A Single-Center Experience with an Intensivist-Led Brain-Dead Donor Management Program

Jin Park et al. Ann Transplant. .

Abstract

BACKGROUND The aim of this study is to report our experience of brain-dead donor management by a dedicated intensivist who had wide experience in treatment of hemodynamically unstable patient and to suggest a role for intensivists in organ donation. MATERIAL AND METHODS The management of brain-dead donors was performed by experienced intensivists. The hospital medical records and data from the Korean Network of Organ Sharing from August 2013 to December 2016 were reviewed retrospectively. RESULTS Fifty-four brain death patients (3.2% of KONOS nationwide data) donated organs in our institution during 41 months. Dedicated intensivists managed deceased patients for the whole duration (2.81±1.21 days) of management, not only with conservative therapies like fluid resuscitation, vasopressor, or hormonal replacement, but also with pulmonary artery catheter insertion for cardiac output monitoring (n=47, 87.0%) and continuous renal replacement therapy (n=22, 40.7%). The number of donors increased each year. The mean number of retrieved organs in each deceased donor was 3.98±1.55, more than the national average (3.26) and comparable to the higher level among the recent worldwide data. The number of donations by organ was: 23 hearts (4.9% of nationwide data), 17 lungs (7.5% of nationwide data), 102 kidneys (3.3% of nationwide data), 47 livers (3.1% of nationwide data), 6 pancreases (2.9% of nationwide data), 1 pancreatic duct (11.1% of nationwide data), and 1 small intestine (12.5% of nationwide data). CONCLUSIONS Management by dedicated intensivists will improve not only the number of actual organ donors, but also the number of harvested organs.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of interest

None.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Demographic characteristics of brain-dead donors in EUMC. There were no significant differences between the potential-dead patients who provided consent for organ donation from the guardians and those who did not.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The mean number of organs recovered from 1 deceased donor. The mean number of procured organs were relatively higher than Korean national data, and even higher than the average of other countries. * Ewha Womans University Medical Center.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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