[Revised organ transplantation act in Japan from the view of emergency doctors]

The revised organ transplantation act will come into effect from July 2010 in Japan. Here, we discuss about problems related to the organ procurement system from the perspective of a donor hospital. Organ procurement poses a heavy burden on the donor hospital, and it is difficult to procure organs from a child. The procedure for organ donation, especially, organ donation upon the diagnosis of brain death, requires considerable time and involves many specialists. For example, the progression from the diagnosis of clinical brain death to the end of organ harvesting takes about more than 45 hours. To reduce the heavy burden on donor hospitals, some type of support system is required such as a system of providing economical assistance and specialists for the diagnosis of brain death. The shipping of organs from a child donor, the regulation of the criteria for the diagnosis children of brain death, and a framework of donor hospitals must be analyzed and standardized. Organ procurement is strictly regulated by legal guidelines; we propose that under the revised legal framework, the procedure of organ procurement be rapid.