Estimating the non-heart-beating donor potential at a trauma center

The number of people awaiting a life-saving transplant far outweighs the number of organs available for transplantation. Our organ procurement organization sought to identify the non-heart-beating donor potential at a large urban level 1 trauma center. We modified the death-record reviews for a 2-year period and determined that a total of 23 patients who expired were suitable for non-heart-beating donation. Therefore, it can be hypothesized that if all large urban level 1 trauma centers participated in non-heart-beating donation, more organs would be available for transplantation.