Non-heart-beating donors from the streets - An increasing donor pool source

Background. Non-heart-beating donors have become a source for organ donatio n, especially kidneys, The emergency room and the critical care unit are th e two sources for this kind of donor, Three years ago, our hospital began a policy of obtaining organs and tissues successfully from subjects who died in the streets. Methods. We consider as potential organ donors people who die out-of-hospit al, are less than 50 years old, with less than 15 min of asystolia without cardiac massage, with a known etiology of death, and without general contra indications for donating, After death diagnosis, the cadaver is taken to th e hospital where an emergency room doctor certifies the death. Afterward, t he cadaver is transferred to the operating room where a cardiopulmonary byp ass is performed to preserve the organs while the legal aspects of donation go on. Results. Up to now, 111 cadavers have been taken as non-heart-beating donor s; 53 of them have been actual donors. The average time before arrival to t he hospital was 68+/-2.64 min, and the average interval between cardiac arr est and the beginning of cardiopulmonary bypass was 111.33+/-7.09 min. We h ave obtained 105 kidneys, 12 livers, 84 corneas, and 31 pancreata for islet s isolation as well as 49 long bones. Seventy-two kidneys mere transplanted , with a probability of survival of 83% at 36 months. Conclusions, Our experience indicates that it is possible to obtain organs for transplant from donors who die in the streets and are brought to the ho spital under strict selection criteria.