Transplantation from non heart beating donors in Newcastle upon Tyne

Donor shortage has led transplant surgeons to reevaluate the concept of non heart beating donation. Organs from such donors are exposed to anoxia prior to harvesting and a portion of them will consequently present with delayed graft function. There is a need for dependable viability testing of organs from less than ideal NHBD donors and machine perfusion of kidneys provides such a tool. Our experience with own design machine perfusion device, studied parameters, perfusion solutions and outcomes is presented. Emphasis is placed on the incomparability of results obtained from different perfusion systems and the need to establish local criteria of kidney viability.