Pulse Pressure Variation is a Valuable Marker for Predicting Fluid Responsiveness in Brain-Dead Donors

PURPOSE

Hemodynamic management in brain-dead donors (BDDs) is challenging due to hemodynamic instabilities. We compared functional parameters with traditional parameters for hemodynamic monitoring in BDDs.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Seventeen BDDs with a positive balance of >500 mL for 8 hours were included. Functional hemodynamic monitoring, including pulse pressure variation (PPV), stroke volume variation (SVV), cardiac output, and systemic vascular resistance index (SVRI) was performed in the setting of tidal volume of 6 mL/kg to 8 mL/kg and minimal positive end-expiratory pressure of 5 cm to 8 cm H2O. Responders were defined by a cardiac output increase of >15% after fluid therapy.

RESULTS

Among the 17 BDDs (mean age, 46.80±13.91 years), 15 were male. Seven responders out of 17 (41.1%) had a significantly higher PPV (22.8±8.4 vs 13.4±5.9%, P = .038) and serum albumin level (3.2±0.6 vs 2.6±0.5 g/L, P = .040) at baseline than nonresponders. However, other hemodynamic markers such as SVV and SVRI were similar between groups. Traditional markers of volume status, such as heart rate, central venous pressure, hemoglobin, and serum uric acid level were also similar between the 2 groups. Hemodynamic markers including PPV, SVV, and SVRI were significantly reduced in responders.

CONCLUSIONS

PPV was the most valuable hemodynamic marker for predicting volume responsiveness in BDDs.

Management of donation after brain death (DBD) in the ICU: the potential donor is identified, what's next?

The success of any donation process requires that potential brain-dead donors (PBDD) are detected and referred early to professionals responsible for their evaluation and conversion to actual donors. The intensivist plays a crucial role in organ donation. However, identification and referral of PBDDs may be suboptimal in the critical care environment. Factors influencing lower rates of detection and referral include the lack of specific training and the need to provide concomitant urgent care to other critically ill patients. Excellent communication between the ICU staff and the procurement organization is necessary to ensure the optimization of both the number and quality of organs transplanted. The organ donation process has been improved over the last two decades with the involvement and commitment of many healthcare professionals. Clinical protocols have been developed and implemented to better organize the multidisciplinary approach to organ donation. In this manuscript, we aim to highlight the main steps of organ donation, taking into account the following: early identification and evaluation of the PBDD with the use of checklists; donor management, including clinical maintenance of the PBDD with high-quality intensive care to prevent graft failure in recipients and strategies for optimizing donated organs by simplified care standards, clinical guidelines and alert tools; the key role of the intensivist in the donation process with the interaction between ICU professionals and transplant coordinators, nurse protocol managers, and communication skills training; and a final remark on the importance of the development of research with further insight into brain death pathophysiology and reversible organ damage.

Impact of Educational and Organizational Initiatives in Organ Donation in a Southern Brazilian State in the Last Decade

BACKGROUND

The unbalance between the demand and supply of organs for transplant is a universal phenomenon. This study shows Santa Catarina's experience with educational and organizational initiatives in the state's transplant system to describe the result of such actions in increasing donation rates.

METHODS

This is a before and after study. Medical data on potential organ donors, listed in the Santa Catarina Transplant Registry between January 2004 and December 2017, were analyzed. This 13-year period was divided into 3 phases. Phase 1, from 2005 to 2007, corresponds to the organization of the program without specific measures. Phase 2, from 2008 to 2011, is associated with theoretical/practical training on family interviews. Phase 3, from 2012 to 2017, is related to the implementation of a protocol for the management of potential deceased donors.

RESULTS

Referrals grew from 35.1 per million population (pmp) (phase 1) to 49.4 pmp (phase 1) and 74.0 pmp (phase 3), translating into a 110.8% (P < .001) increase. Lack of family consent dropped from 39.8% to 27.8% in phase 3, a global reduction of 30.1% (P < .001). Loss of donors to cardiac arrest were reduced from 51.9% to 23.3% to 12.2%. Effective donors, which varied from 12.0 pmp to 20.0 pmp and 32.7 pmp, increased by 172.5% (P < .001).

CONCLUSIONS

This study demonstrates the positive association between articulated educational initiatives and improvements in potential donors' identification, which, associated with cardiac arrest loss control and increased family consent, brought about significantly better results in organ donation.

[Critical care management of the potential organ donor : Current recommendation for adults]

The shortage of donor organs has not improved in recent years. To increase the number and success of transplantation it is crucial to optimize the processes of early identification of potential organ donors and structured critical care management. The therapy starts long before brain death is diagnosed. Structured in-house organ donor management protocols ensure a highly qualified critical care that has a direct impact on the transplantation outcome. The therapy is based on the established standards. The main focus is on differentiated catecholamine and volume therapy. Vasopressin, in combination with norepinephrine, is effective for both treating vasoplegia and electrolyte disturbances. Despite poor evidence, steroids are useful for stabilizing hemodynamics and treating the consequences of neuroendocrine dysfunction. Overall, prospective studies are required to give general recommendations for critical care.

Guidelines for the management of a brain death donor in the rhesus macaque: A translational transplant model

Introduction

The development of a translatable brain death animal model has significant potential to advance not only transplant research, but also the understanding of the pathophysiologic changes that occur in brain death and severe traumatic brain injury. The aim of this paper is to describe a rhesus macaque model of brain death designed to simulate the average time and medical management described in the human literature.

Methods

Following approval by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, a brain death model was developed. Non-human primates were monitored and maintained for 20 hours after brain death induction. Vasoactive agents and fluid boluses were administered to maintain hemodynamic stability. Endocrine derangements, particularly diabetes insipidus, were aggressively managed.

Results

A total of 9 rhesus macaque animals were included in the study. The expected hemodynamic instability of brain death in a rostral to caudal fashion was documented in terms of blood pressure and heart rate changes. During the maintenance phase of brain death, the animal’s temperature and hemodynamics were maintained with goals of mean arterial pressure greater than 60mmHg and heart rate within 20 beats per minute of baseline. Resuscitation protocols are described so that future investigators may reproduce this model.

Conclusion

We have developed a reproducible large animal primate model of brain death which simulates clinical scenarios and treatment. Our model offers the opportunity for researchers to have translational model to test the efficacy of therapeutic strategies prior to human clinical trials.

Anesthesia Management of Organ Donors

The shortage of suitable organs is the biggest obstacle for transplants. At present, most organs for transplant in the United States are from donation after neurologic determination of death (brain death). Potential organs for transplant need to maintain their viability during a series of insults, including the original disease, physiologic derangements during the dying process, ischemia, and reperfusion. Proper donor management before, during, and after procurement has potential to increase the number and quality of organs from donors. Anesthesiologists need to understand the physiologic derangements associated with brain death and the updated donor management during the periprocurement period.

Deceased Organ Donor Management: Does Hospital Volume Matter?

BACKGROUND

Identification of strategies to improve organ donor use remains imperative. Despite the association between hospital volume and outcomes for many common disease processes, there have been no studies that assess the impact of organ donor hospital volume on organ yield.

STUDY DESIGN

A prospective observational study of all deceased organ donors managed by 10 organ procurement organizations across United Network for Organ Sharing regions 4, 5, and 6 was conducted from February 2012 to June 2015. To study the impact of hospital volume on organ yield, each donor was placed into a hospital-volume quartile based on the number of donors managed by their hospital. Stepwise logistic regression was used to identify the independent effect of hospital volume on the primary outcomes measure of having ≥4 organs transplanted per donor.

RESULTS

Data from 4,427 donors across 384 hospitals were collected and hospitals were assigned quartiles based on their volume of deceased donors. Hospitals managed a mean ± SD of 3.3 ± 5.2 donors per hospital per year. After adjusting for age, ethnicity, donor type, blood type, BMI, creatinine, and organ procurement organization/donor service area, being managed in hospitals within the highest volume quartile remained a positive independent predictor of ≥4 organs transplanted per donor (odds ratio = 1.52; 95% CI 1.29 to 1.79; p < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

Deceased organ donor hospital volume impacts organ yield, with the highest-volume centers being 52% more likely to achieve ≥4 organs transplanted per donor. Efforts should be made to share practices from these higher-volume centers and consideration should be given to centralization of donor care.

Positive impact of a clinical goal-directed protocol on reducing cardiac arrests during potential brain-dead donor maintenance

Background

The disproportion between the large organ demand and the low number of transplantations performed represents a serious public health problem worldwide. Reducing the loss of transplantable organs from deceased potential donors as a function of cardiac arrest (CA) may contribute to an increase in organ donations. Our purpose was to test the hypothesis that a goal-directed protocol to guide the management of deceased donors may reduce the losses of potential brain-dead donors (PBDDs) due to CA.

Methods

The quality improvement project included 27 hospitals that reported deceased donors prospectively to the Transplant Center of the State of Santa Catarina, Brazil. All deceased donors reported prospectively between May 2012 and April 2014 were analyzed. Hospitals were encouraged to use the VIP approach checklist during the management of PBDDs. The checklist was composed of the following goals: protocol duration 12–24 hours, temperature > 35 °C, mean arterial pressure ≥ 65 mmHg, diuresis 1–4 ml/kg/h, corticosteroids, vasopressin, tidal volume 6–8 ml/kg, positive end-expiratory pressure 8–10 cmH₂O, sodium < 150 mEq/L, and glycemia < 180 mg/dl. A logistic regression model was used to identify predictors of CA.

Results

There were 726 PBDD notifications, of which 324 (44.6) were actual donors, 141 (19.4 %) CAs, 226 (31.1 %) family refusals, and 35 (4.8 %) contraindications. Factors associated with CA reduction included use of the checklist (odds ratio (OR) 0.43, p < 0.001), maintenance performed inside the ICU (OR 0.49, p = 0.013), and vasopressin administration (OR 0.56, p = 0.04). More than three interventions had association with less CAs (OR 0.19, p < 0.001). After 24 months, CAs decreased from 27.3 % to 14.6 % (p = 0.002), reaching 12.1 % in the following two 4-month periods (p < 0.001). Simultaneous increases in organ recovered per donor and in actual donors were observed.

Conclusions

A quality improvement program based on education and the use of a goal checklist for the management of potential donors inside the ICU is strongly associated with a decrease in donor losses and an increase in organs recovered per donor.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13054-016-1484-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.