The Potential Organ Donor: Current Trends and Management

Abstract

Increasing numbers of trauma patients receive immediate and appropriate control of life-threatening injuries, but some of them eventually progress to brain death. Establishment of the best therapeutic strategies for patients with extensive and major trauma has led to significant improvement in donor conversion rates and increased utilization of deceased donors. Approximately 30% of all deceased organ donors are trauma patients who have suffered devastating neurologic injury and have progressed to brain death. Donation rates have risen in the past decade, but many patients still die on the waiting list for organ transplants. Although most organs are from brain death donors, donation after cardiac death has come to be an additional resource in recent years. Optimizing selection and management of potential organ donors and exploring new strategies for maintenance of organ function have thus become a priority for expanding the transplantable organ pool. This chapter discusses organ donation from deceased donors, highlighting the margins of improvement in their management from declaration of death to organ recovery and outlining the possible applications of new perfusion technologies in this process.