Educational program of organ donation and transplantation at medical school

A favorable attitude of health professionals to organ donation can positively influence the decision of families of potential donors. By increasing health professionals knowledge about donation and transplantation and qualifying them to disseminate information, education has produced a positive response to increase the insufficient number of donors. Educating students early in their careers may become crucial in this setting. In order to supply the necessary information about the process of donation and transplantation, a medical school in association with the Hospital Transplant Coordination Department created an educational program of organ donation and transplantation. This course is intended for medical, biomedical, and nutrition students. The objective of our program is to supply basic knowledge about organ donation and transplantation to students of medicine, nutrition, and biomedicine and to enhance their commitment to this process. Each semester, 50 to 90 students are enrolled in the course, which involves a total of 25 hours. Various aspects are approached such as brain death, donor management, political and legal aspects of donation, and skin, lung, bone marrow, heart, pancreas, liver, and kidney transplantation. Between March 2006 and June 2007, three courses were carried out and 200 students were trained. The students evaluated the course and rated it as excellent, concluding that it contributed to their education. Their attitude toward organ donation and transplantation was strongly positive at the end of the course. This project aims to educate and stimulate students in the process of organ donation and transplantation and should be implemented in other medical schools.

Peripheral gangrene complicating idiopathic and recessive hemolytic uremic syndromes

Three patients with hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) developed peripheral gangrene. Bilateral carotid artery thromboses occurred in one of these patients after recovery from HUS. One patient had a long history of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. In the second patient, a flu-like illness preceded the onset of HUS. The third was one of two sisters, with the HUS appearing more than 1 year apart. None had evidence of disseminated intravascular coagulation or infection with Streptococcus pneumoniae. The patient with rheumatoid arthritis had renal cortical necrosis but recovered moderate renal function after treatment with dialysis and plasmapheresis for 6 months. The child with a genetic form of HUS died of renal failure and had massive cortical necrosis and vascular thrombosis at autopsy. This is the first report of peripheral gangrene in children with idiopathic HUS and autosomal recessive HUS.