RETRIEVAL OF ORGANS FOR TRANSPLANTATION - EXPERIENCE OF THE AUSTRALIAN-NATIONAL-LIVER-TRANSPLANTATION-UNIT

The Australian National Liver Transplantation Unit carried out 251 mul tiple organ-retrieval procedures between January 1986 and December 199 4: 53% were in the Sydney metropolitan area, 22% in country New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, 21% interstate and 4% in N ew Zealand; mean fetal procurement times were, respectively 4 hours 57 minutes, 6 hours 58 minutes, 9 hours 20 minutes and 12 hours 20 minut es. Donor operation times steadily decreased over the nine years. One- year patient and graft survival rates were 77.1% and 70.3%,respectivel y; primary non-function occurred in only one case. The importance of c oordination of donor organ procurement and efficient organ retrieval t o the success of transplantation programs is discussed.