Analysis of the Potential Deceased Donors in the Neurosurgical Intensive Care Units of Korea / 대한이식학회지

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: The shortage of donor organs is the main problem that needs to be solved in Korea as well as in other countries. To expand the donor pool, we retrospectively reviewed the brain-dead patients who expired without organ donation in the neurosurgical intensive care units (NICU) and evaluated the potential deceased donors (PDDs). METHODS: Between January 2008 and December 2008, PDDs who expired without organ donation in the NICU were recruited from 52 secondary or tertiary referral hospitals in Korea. The data of a total 2,288 PDD cases were collected from the questionnaire. Of these, 1,980 cases were eligible for analysis. RESULTS: There were 1,166 males (58.9%) and 793 females (40.1%) with a mean age of 57.6+/-18.0 years (21.2% in the 5th decade; 21.0% in the 6th decade). The most common cause of death of PDDs was cerebrovascular accident (n=1,034; 52.2%). Glasgow Coma scale was 3 in 23.1% and 4 in 12.1% of the PDDs. Craniotomy was performed in 996 patients (50.3%). Sepsis developed in 276 patients (14.0%) among the total PPDs. Diagnostic procedure for assessment of brain death was performed in 194 patients (9.8%). The seroprevalence of HBsAg and HCVAb was 1.7% and 0.6%, respectively. The mean AST/ALT level on admission and after brain death were 80.9+/-344.9/49.0+/-162.19 and 308.6+/-1,485.2/142.5+/-596.27 IU/L, respectively. Uriney protein level was normal in 1,221 patients (61.7%) after brain death. Of the 1980 PDDs, 19 patients (1%) donated their organs for transplantation. CONCLUSION: Only a small percentage (1%) of PDDs in the NICU donated their organs in Korea. We suggest that continuous and active donor action is needed to increase organ donation from the potential deceased donors.