Estimating the Number of Potential Organ Donors in the United States

Abstract

Lack of consent to a request for donation was the primary cause of the gap between the number of potential donors and the number of actual donors. Since potential and actual donors are highly concentrated in larger hospitals, resources invested to improve the process of obtaining consent in larger hospitals should maximize the rate of organ recovery. The performance of organ-procurement organizations can be assessed objectively through the comparison of the number of actual donors with the number of potential donors in the given service area.

Palliative Care Consultations in Hospitalized Stroke Patients

“…Brain death causes about 0.5% of all deaths, up to 10% of all hospitalized stroke deaths, and up to 20% of deaths in patients admitted to a neuro-ICU. 15 However, only 2 patients fulfilled criteria for brain death in our series, one of whom was an organ donor. Much work remains in defining the proper role of the PC provider at the interface between brain death procedures and organ donation practices (including donation after cardiac death).…”

Assessing Organ Donation from the Dead Should Not Be Done by Reporting a Census of the Living

“…The determination of organ donor potential, by either the number of brain dead or the number of cardiac dead who are suitable for organ recovery, has revealed a wide variation from one region to another (8). Many Organ Procurement Organizations (OPOs) determine this vital statistic through concurrent and retrospective reviews of deaths in their affiliated hospitals.…”

Coordinación y logística del trasplante de tejidos de donantes de cadáver intra y extra-hospitalarios. "Modelo Pamplona": Cadena de actuación 1992-2006

“…El modelo de coordinación extra-hospitalaria de trasplantes de tejidos, denominado Modelo Pamplona 5,29,30 se basa en tres pilares: 1º. El equipo de coordinación del hospital de referencia (HVC), 2º.…”