Family presence during brain death evaluation improves understanding of brain death with no apparent adverse impact on psychological well-being. Family presence during brain death evaluation is feasible and safe.

OBJECTIVE To define how ethnicity affects donation rates in New Mexico as compared to the United States. We hypothesized that deceased donation rates in NM would reflect the ethnic rates of the population. DESIGN We performed a retrospective review of the Organ Procurement Database for NM from 2009 to June 2012. MEASUREMENTS Rates for donors and transplant candidates were calculated relative to 2010 census population estimates by ethnicity for Non-Hispanic Whites, Hispanics and American Indians. Poisson regression analyses were used to test whether US and NM rates differed. Rates were scaled to 100,000 patient-years for reporting. RESULTS Non-Hispanic White age-adjusted donor rates per 100,000 patient years were 2.58 in NM vs. 2.60 in US, Hispanic donor rates were 1.98 in NM vs 2.03 nationwide, and American Indian donor rates in NM were 0.26 vs. 1.23 nationwide (Rate Ratio = 0.21, 95% CI 0.05,0.86) American Indians have significantly lower donor rates in NM compared to Non-Hispanic Whites (Rate ratio = 0.11) and Hispanics (RR = 0.13) and nationally (Non-Hispanic Whites: RR = 0.32 and Hispanics: 0.43). Hispanics and Non-Hispanic Whites had similar donor rates regardless of geographic strata (Hispanics vs Non-Hispanic Whites NM: 0.83; US: 0.75). In NM Hispanic patients were 1.43 times more likely to be listed as transplant candidates than Non-Hispanic Whites and American Indians were 3.32 times more likely to be listed than Non-Hispanic Whites. In the US Hispanic patients were 1.90 times more likely to be listed as transplant candidates than Non-Hispanic Whites and American Indians were 1.55 times more likely to be listed than Non-Hispanic Whites. CONCLUSIONS Donor and transplant candidate rates did not show strong differences by geographic strata. These findings suggest that further work is needed to elucidate the causes for ethnic differences in rates of consent and donation, particularly in the American Indian population.

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