Brain death caused by electric shock and organ donation in children

There are still few publications about brain death caused by electric shock and the use of organs for donation in this situation. We sought to present our experience, with brain dead pediatric donors caused by electric shock.

Notification registers of potential donors were analyzed from 1998 to 2005.

During this period, 2086 potential donors were secured, of whom 307 (14.7%) were less than 18 years old. Four pediatric potential donors (1.3%) suffered brain death due to anoxia by electric shock. Six kidneys, three livers, six corneas, and three heart valves were used for transplantation. The hearts and the lungs were not offered, because of a lack of compatible patients on the waiting list. The pediatric donors showed significant alterations of cardiac enzymes and two had altered liver enzymes.

Brain death caused by electric shock is not a contraindication for organ donation. Follow-up of the recipients is necessary to determine if the transplants were successful.