Use of non-heart-beating donors in renal transplantation

Lessons from a pilot for uncontrolled donation after circulatory death in the ED in the UK

Worldwide there is a shortage of available organs for patients requiring transplants. However, some countries such as France, Italy and Spain have had greater success by allowing donations from patients with unexpected and unrecoverable circulatory arrest who arrive in the ED. Significant advances in the surgical approach to organ recovery from donation after circulatory death (DCD) led to the establishment of a pilot programme for uncontrolled DCD in the ED of the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. This paper describes the programme and discusses the lessons learnt.

A single center experience of donation after cardiac death liver transplantation in pediatric recipients

Many centers are now performing DCD adult LT. There has been a reluctance to transplant pediatric recipients with DCD livers due to concern over the medium to long-term outcome. We describe the outcome of 14 children (median age seven yr, 8 months-16 yr) that underwent LT with DCD grafts from July 2001 to December 2007. Donors had a median age of 23 yr (10-64), intensive care stay of five d (2-14) and bilirubin of 9 mmol/L (6-60). Median warm and cold ischemic time was 16 min (11-29) and seven h (5.5-8.4). Livers were transplanted as a whole organ (4), reduced graft (8), formal split (1) or auxiliary transplant (1). Compared to DBD recipients AST was significantly higher on the first three post-operative days and there was no difference in the INR, bilirubin or GGT out to 12 months. There were no biliary or vascular complications and patient and graft survival is 100% at a median follow-up of 41.8 months (1.7-74 months). LT with DCD grafts in pediatric recipients can be performed with low morbidity and excellent short-to-medium term patient and graft outcome.

In defense of the reverence of all life: Heideggerean dissolution of the ethical challenges of organ donation after circulatory determination of death

During the past 50 years since the first successful organ transplant, waiting lists of potential organ recipients have expanded exponentially as supply and demand have been on a collision course. The recovery of organs from patients with circulatory determination of death is one of several effective alternative approaches recommended to reduce the supply-and-demand gap. However, renewed debate ensues regarding the ethical management of the overarching risks, pressures, challenges and conflicts of interest inherent in organ retrieval after circulatory determination of death. In this article, the author claims that through the engagement of a Heideggerean existential phenomenological and hermeneutic framework what are perceived as ethical problems dissolve, including collapse of commitment to the dead donor rule. The author argues for a revisioned socially constructed conceptual and philosophical responsibility of humankind to recognize the limits of bodily finitude, to responsibly use the capacity of the transplantable organs, and to grant enhanced or renewed existence to one with diminished or life-limited capacity; thereby making the locus of ethical concern the donor-recipient as unitary ''life.'' What ethically matters in the life-cycle (life-world) of donor-recipient is the viability of the organs transplanted; thereby granting reverence to all life.