ORGAN PRESERVATION

Organ preservation for about 24 to 30 hours is required for use of mos t cadaveric organs. This level of preservation has been achieved for t he pancreas, liver, and kidney, and very few organs are ever wasted be cause safe preservation times have been exceeded. Preservation is done by simple refrigerated storage of the organs after vascular flushout with the preservation solution. Heart and lung preservation currently is limited to about 4 to 8 hours. Although the preservation solution m ay be effective for these organs for about 12 hours, an ideal method t o preserve these organs has not yet been achieved. The authors' clinic al experience in organ preservation for clinical transplantation is pr esented.