THE FEASIBILITY OF ORGAN SALVAGE FROM NON-HEART-BEATING TRAUMA DONORS

Background: Blunt trauma patients without vital signs on admission are potential non-heart-beating donors. Objective: To review the feasibil ity of postmortem visceral perfusion and organ donation in blunt traum a patients without vital signs. Design: A retrospective case series of blunt trauma victims who were declared dead in the emergency departme nt. Setting: A level I trauma center. Main Outcome Measures: Factors p otentially precluding donation and potential donor yield. Results: The mean trauma-to-death interval was 71 minutes (<60 minutes in 57% of t he cases). Injuries likely to interfere with in situ perfusion were pr esent in 41% of the cases. The tissue donation consent rate was 45%. A ssuming a similar organ donation consent rate, the potential donor yie ld was 9% after excluding victims who were younger than 60 years of ag e, warm ischemia times that were less than 60 minutes, and patients wh o had injuries precluding perfusion.Conclusions: The potential organ y ield from non-heart-beating, blunt trauma victims is low, which highli ghts the ethical and legal problems of this approach.