Organ donation from a patient with bacterial meningoencephalitis -- the first case in Croatia

The growing number of patients with terminal organ failure waiting for transplantation and the limited number of available organs demand that explantation teams see brain-dead patients with infectious diseases such as bacterial meningoencephalitis as potential donors, although until recently organ explantation from such donors has been contraindicated. This paper presents the first case of successful organ explantation from a donor with confirmed bacterial meningoencephalitis in our country. In this previously healthy patient (only with mild arterial hypertension in personal history), bacterial meningoencephalitis caused fulminant worsening and he deteriorated from mild disorder of consciousness (GCS 12) to brain death within only 24 hours. After the transplantation of organs was performed (heart, kidneys, liver and corneas were explanted), antibiotic therapy was continued in all organ recipients and two days after the transplantation none of the recipients showed any signs of infectious complications. This paper proves that this type of patients should also be treated as potential donors, under condition of appropriate microbiological diagnosis, antibiotic therapy and sustained hemodynamic stability, which should enlarge the number of organs available for transplantation.