Successful Implementation of Unmanned Aircraft Use for Delivery of a Human Organ for Transplantation.

OBJECTIVE: To understand and overcome the challenges associated with moving life-urgent payloads using unmanned aircraft. BACKGROUND DATA: Organ transportation has not been substantially innovated in the last 60 years. Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS; ie, drones) have the potential to reduce system inefficiencies and improve access to transplantation. We sought to determine if UASs could successfully be integrated into the current system of organ delivery. METHODS: A multi-disciplinary team was convened to design and build an unmanned aircraft to autonomously carry a human organ. A kidney transplant recipient was enrolled to receive a drone-shipped kidney. RESULTS: A uniquely designed organ drone was built. The aircraft was flown 44 times (total of 7.38 hours). Three experimental missions were then flown in Baltimore City over 2.8 miles. For mission #1, no payload was carried. In mission #2, a payload of ice, saline, and blood tubes (3.8 kg, 8.4 lbs) was flown. In mission #3, a human kidney for transplant (4.4 kg, 9.7 lbs) was successfully flown by a UAS. The organ was transplanted into a 44-year-old female with a history of hypertensive nephrosclerosis and anuria on dialysis for 8 years. Between postoperative days (POD) 1 and 4, urine increased from 1.0 L to 3.6 L. Creatinine decreased starting on POD 3, to an inpatient nadir of 6.9 mg/dL. The patient was discharged on POD 4. CONCLUSIONS: Here, we completed the first successful delivery of a human organ using unmanned aircraft. This study brought together multidisciplinary resources to develop, build, and test the first organ drone system, through which we performed the first transplant of a drone transported kidney. These innovations could inform not just transplantation, but other areas of medicine requiring life-saving payload delivery as well.

Use of recombinant factor VIIa to facilitate organ donation in trauma patients with devastating neurologic injury.

BACKGROUND: Organ donation serves a public health function but is also an important part of end-of-life care. Nearly 40% of organ donors are the victims of traumatic brain injury (TBI). We report on a series of patients with nonsurvivable TBI and severe coagulopathy or active hemorrhage who went on to successful organ donation with the use of recombinant factor VIIa (rFVIIa). STUDY DESIGN: Organ donors from a 6-year period were identified from the local Organ Procurement Organization (OPO). Medical records were reviewed, and demographics, injury-specific data, coagulation profiles, and medications administered were abstracted. Outcomes data on early graft function after transplantation were obtained. RESULTS: One hundred forty-eight patients had organ recovery after either brain death or withdrawal of care. Twenty-nine patients received rFVIIa and 119 patients did not. rFVIIa was administered before determination of nonsurvivability or brain death in 21 patients. In eight patients, rFVIIa was administered as a specific salvage therapy to allow donation. Mean Injury Severity Score in the rFVIIa group was 43.4 (+/-14.8) versus 34.0 (+/-13.3) in the group that did not receive rFVIIa (p = 0.001). Organs transplanted per donor were no different in the 2 groups (3.5 versus 3.6; p = 0.7). There were nearly twice as many successfully recovered lungs from the donors who received rFVIIa (44.1% versus 26.2%; p = 0.04). There was no difference in early graft function in the two groups when recipient outcomes were compared. CONCLUSIONS: Use of rFVIIa facilitated donation in patients with multisystem injuries who otherwise might have been ineligible for organ donation. Use of rFVIIa did not affect early graft function, although longterm outcomes are unknown. Recombinant factor VIIa is expensive, but its use is justified if the donor organ supply can be increased.