[How to improve the rate of organ donation for transplantation?]

Increasing shortage of organs for transplantation is a global phenomenon. In spite of a high kidney transplantation rate (45 per million population), the waiting list for kidney transplantation in Norway increased by 22% from 1996 to 1998. The waiting list for lung transplantation increased by 129% in the same period. The average annual number of cadaveric organ donors was 15.8 per million, with significant differences in donation rate between the health regions. Investigators have established the incidence of potential organ donors to be around 50 per million population per year. Failure to identify or support a potential donor and refusal of permission from relatives are important reasons why organ donation does not occur. We give a brief overview of programmes implemented in various European countries to increase organ donation. Improvement of donor hospitals organisation in order to support potential donor detection as well as training and motivation of hospital staff are considered important steps for increasing the organ donation rate.