Outcome of transplantation of organs procured from bacteremic donors

Background. Transplantation of organs from donors who are bacteremic is con troversial. We examined the outcome of recipients of solid organs from dono rs with bacteremia and/or fungemia at the time of organ recovery. Methods. All organ donors from a single organ procurement organization betw een January 1990 and December 1996 mere retrospectively analyzed. We calcul ated rates of transmission from bacteremic or fungemic donors to their reci pients and compared the graft and patient survival rates for recipients of these organs with those for recipients of organs from nonbacteremic donors. Results, There were 95 (5.1%) bacteremic donors from a total of 1775, from whom 212 recipients received organs. Forty six (48%) of the bacteremic dono rs had pathogens in their blood. Among the 101 recipients of organs from th ese, no evidence of transmission could be documented. (0% transmission rate , 95% CI 0-3), The remaining 49 donors had either Staphylococcus epidermidi s or other unlikely pathogens recovered from the blood, Examination of the 111 recipients of organs from these donors also found no evidence for trans mission (0% transmission rate, 95% CI 0-3). Of the 212 recipients, 193 (91% ) received a mean of 3.8+/-2.5 days of antibiotics postoperatively. The 30- day graft and patient survival for recipients of organs from bacteremic don ors was not significantly different from recipients of organs from nonbacte remic donors (P=0.695 for patient survival, and P=0.310 for graft survival) , Conclusions. Organs transplanted from bacteremic donors do not transmit bac terial infection or result in poorer outcomes. Use of organs from these don ors could help increase organ availability.