Organ donation from brain-dead and circulatory-dead donors: single-institution experiences

Although the number of organ donations is extremely small in Japan, organ donation from brain dead (DBD) donors is increasing since the revised Law for Organ Transplantation was enacted on July 17, 2010. In our institution, organ donations had so far been performed from 247 donors (DCD 242, DBD 5), which is the largest number in Japan. In this study, we analyzed the status of organ donation before and after the enforcement of the revised law. After the enforcement of the revised law, the option of organ donation was shown to the more families of potential donors by the doctors or donor coordinators. However, the final number of donors was almost the same. The frequency of DBD donors of all donors increased (33.3%) as compared to 9.1% before the enforcement of the revised law. Reasons for rejection of donation from donor families were mainly based on the lack of understanding of brain death. To increase organ donation, we should promote social recognition of brain death, having the Organ Donation Card, and discussion of organ donation in each family.