Brain-dead kidney donor: selection, care, and administration

Abstract

Over four and a half years a district general hospital provided 34 cadaveric kidneys for transplantation. All brain-dead patients were regarded as potential donors, flow charts being used to maintain circulation and urine formation and facilitate administration. With this system the time lapse between diagnosis of brain death and removal of kidneys ranged from three to six hours and ischaemia was minimised. It is concluded that adoption of the system by other hospitals of comparable size would result in enough good-quality kidneys to satisfy present needs, thus reducing the initial high failure rate and enabling more patients to be accepted for dialysis.