[Analysis of effective renal donation from brain-dead donors in a level II hospital over 10 years]

The epidemiological characteristics of brain-dead donors have changed with time without a significant increase in the rate of explants performed. The objective of this article is to evaluate if the epidemiological characteristics (sex, age, and death cause) have changed with time, and To evaluate if the rate of effective explants is adjusted to a quality standard.

All patients who became renal donors (one or two renal units) between January 1st 1995 and December 31st 2005 in a level II hospital with intensive care unit but without neurosurgery, which is not a reference center for severe polytrauma patients, within a health-care area of the Autonomic Community of Madrid (Mostoles, 200.000 inhabitants), were included in this retrospective study. Cause of death, age, HBV and HCV serologies, as well as multiorgan donation (liver, pancreas, bowel, heart, lungs, and tissues). Additionally, the differences between two consecutive periods of time will be analyzed: 1995-1999 and 2000-2005. SPSS v 13.0 software (Chicano, Illinois, USA) was used for the statistical analysis; the T test for independent samples was applied, considering an alpha error inferior to 0.05 for significance. A minimum of 0.2% of the total number of hospital deaths was considered as quality indicator for the adjustment of donation rate.

Over the whole study period there were 4314 deaths in the hospital. Forty-six renal harvestings were performed with a mean donor age of 58.1 yr. (mean standard error (SE)14.25). In the first study period (1995-1999) there were 20 donations with a donor mean age of 52.8 yr. (SE 12.13), and there were 26 donations in the second period (2000-2005) with a mean age of 62.23 yr. (SE 14.49). Nevertheless, there were no statistically significant differences between both groups (p = 2.273). A total of eight patients were HBV positive (17.4%) and four (8.7%) HCV positive. In 80.4% of the patients the cause of brain death was brain hemorrhage (37 patients), 15.2% hypoxic encephalopathy (7 patients), one patient died due to fat embolism after motor vehicle accident, and another one from thrombotic purpura. There were no differences in death cause between both periods (p> 2.05). Hepatic extraction was performed in 74% of the patients, heart and lung in 6.5%, pancreas in 4.3%, and tissues in 50%. Donation rate was 7.05%.

1. There is a trend to higher brain-dead-donor age, although it is not statistically significant, probably due to sample size. 2. The rate of brain-dead donor detection is over quality standards. Nevertheless, training programs to detect these patients and improve results should be established at the hospital level.