Organ procurement in children--surgical, anaesthetic and logistic aspects

To cover the need in paediatric organ transplantation, every potential donor should be considered as a multi-organ donor. Successful transplantation may be performed with kidneys retrieved from very young infants, even anencephalic neonates if the en-bloc technique using both kidneys is used. Regarding the liver, paediatric donors can be accepted from one month of age while livers harvested from older children and even young adults can be transplanted into small children after ex-vivo reduction of the size of the graft. Multi-organ procurement from the same donor provides valuable organs if the anaesthetic management of the donor is appropriate. Active transplant programs needs international cooperation which is made possible by the organ exchange organizations.