Maintaining Acid-Base Balance in Organ Donors

Challenges in Donor Care

This article is provided as a self-study feature on care of organ donors. Questions and possible responses are provided. Review all the responses for each question.

Proposed Treatment Guidelines for Donor Care

The complex care of the organ donor during preparation for organ removal and provision of the best organs for transplantation is often the responsibility of the organ procurement coordinator. To assist in that process the following clinical problem-based guidelines have been developed. A standard order set is recommended to initiate treatment and to provide a continuing laboratory database. As clinical concerns arise from that database, past medical history, or ongoing donor care, section of these guidelines may serve as references for specific interventions. Physician consultation and collaboration with other bedside care providers are encouraged throughout.

Using Pressure-Limited Mechanical Ventilation in Caring for Organ Donors

Pressure-limited (controlled) ventilation is commonly employed to provide mechanical ventilation in the intensive care unit when lung compliance is poor or when airway resistance is irreversibly high. Modification of the inspiratory-expiratory ratio to include inspiratory-expiratory ratio reversal and permissive hypercapnia can also be used when lung disease or injury is severe. Because other donor organs often can be saved for transplantation even when the lungs have been badly damaged, the organ procurement coordinator should adopt pressure-limited ventilation as well as inspiratory-expiratory ratio reversal and permissive hypercapnia as potentially helpful methods while providing mechanical ventilation to selected donors.

Interactive Grand Rounds: Challenges in Donor Care: Part 2

This article is provided as a self-study feature on care of organ donors. Questions and possible responses are provided. Review all the responses for each question.

[Evaluation of the potential organ donor with special regards to heart donation]

Angesichts der auch in Österreich vorherrschenden Knappheit an verfügbaren Organspendern für Herztransplantationen erscheint es dringlich notwendig, eine Optimierung von Spenderevaluierung und Management zu diskutieren. In der vorliegenden Arbeit werden allgemeine Spenderkriterien und herzspezifische Parameter detailliert diskutiert und im Zusammenhang mit der internationalen Literatur dargestellt. Es wird der "marginale" und im Gegensatz dazu der "optimale" Organspender definiert. Das Spendermanagement wird besprochen, wobei neben der hämodynamischen Optimierung auch auf zusätzliche intensivmedizinische Aspekte eingegangen wird. Erst die exakte Evaluierung erlaubt die individuelle Zuteilung des Organs zum passenden Empfänger und stellt somit insbesondere bei marginalen Spendern die Grundlage eines Therapieerfolgs dar.

Extended somatic support for pregnant women after brain death

OBJECTIVE

To review case reports of pregnant women who have been supported after brain death until successful delivery of their infants. From these reports and other literature about brain death, normal physiologic changes of pregnancy, and specific needs for fetal development, recommendations were made to assist in supporting pregnant women after brain death until delivery of a mature fetus who is likely to survive.

DATA SOURCES

Personal files and experiences, MEDLINE review of case reports and publications about physiologic changes present during normal pregnancy and after brain death, and the critical needs for fetal development were included.

DATA EXTRACTION

Eleven reports of ten patients comprise the accumulated clinical experience. Hypotension, requiring fluid administration and inotropic/vasopressor therapy, occurred in all the mothers, and in six cases, was the reason for urgent delivery. The longest period of support was 107 days, from 15 to 32 wks of gestation. Two mothers also became organ donors. Recurrent infections, thermolability, and other complications common to prolonged ICU care were encountered. All infants survived. One had congenital abnormalities caused by phenytoin use by the mother. When followed, all others developed within normal growth and mental variables. These cases plus literature citations noted above were used to develop recommendations for maternal/fetal care.

CONCLUSION

Preservation of uterine/placental blood flow is the most important priority during somatic support. Imprecise autoregulation of the uterine vasculature during maternal hypoxemia or hypotension makes this goal a significant challenge. Special considerations for nutrition; medication use; cardiovascular, respiratory, or endocrine therapy; fetal monitoring; hormone replacement; and ethical concerns are discussed.

Consensus conference report: maximizing use of organs recovered from the cadaver donor: cardiac recommendations, March 28-29, 2001, Crystal City, Va

The shortage of available donor hearts continues to limit cardiac transplantation. For this reason, strict criteria have limited the number of patients placed on the US waiting list to approximately 6000 to 8000 per year. Because the number of available donor hearts has not increased beyond approximately 2500 per year, the transplant waiting list mortality rate remains substantial. Suboptimal and variable utilization of donor hearts has compounded the problem in the United States. In 1999, the average donor yield from 55 US regions was 39%, ranging from 19% to 62%. This report provides the detailed cardiac recommendations from the conference on "Maximizing Use of Organs Recovered From the Cadaver Donor" held March 28 to 29, 2001, in Crystal City, Va. The specific objective of the report is to provide recommendations to improve the evaluation and successful utilization of potential cardiac donors. The report describes the accuracy of current techniques such as echocardiography in the assessment of donor heart function before recovery and the impact of these data on donor yield. The rationale for and specific details of a donor-management pathway that uses pulmonary artery catheterization and hormonal resuscitation are provided. Administrative recommendations such as enhanced communication strategies among transplant centers and organ-procurement organizations, financial incentives for organ recovery, and expansion of donor database fields for research are also described.

Challenges in donor care

This article is provided as a self-study feature on care of organ donors. Questions and possible responses are provided. Review all the responses for each question.

Using pressure-limited mechanical ventilation in caring for organ donors

Pressure-limited (controlled) ventilation is commonly employed to provide mechanical ventilation in the intensive care unit when lung compliance is poor or when airway resistance is irreversibly high. Modification of the inspiratory-expiratory ratio to include inspiratory-expiratory ratio reversal and permissive hypercapnia can also be used when lung disease or injury is severe. Because other donor organs often can be saved for transplantation even when the lungs have been badly damaged, the organ procurement coordinator should adopt pressure-limited ventilation as well as inspiratory-expiratory ratio reversal and permissive hypercapnia as potentially helpful methods while providing mechanical ventilation to selected donors.