Combined liver and pancreas procurement with Belzer-UW solution

Graft availability remains the major limitation to organ transplantation. Belzer-UW solution has been used for multiple organ procurement in 20 consecutive donors. Belzer-UW solution was used for both aortic in situ flush and ex vivo cold storage. From 20 donors, a total of 20 pancreatic grafts, 20 livers, 39 kidneys, and 10 hearts were procured. Mean preservation time was 14.2 hours for the pancreas, 16 hours for the kidney transplanted with the pancreas, 13.8 hours for the liver, and 29.9 hours for the isolated kidneys, which were machine perfused. Graft survival of the organs transplanted at the University of Wisconsin was 100% for kidney and pancreas, 93.3% for the isolated kidney, and 78.5% for the liver. When the organs referred to other centers were included, 84 of 89 procured organs were functioning at 1 month. It is concluded that multiorgan procurement with Belzer-UW solution yields excellent graft function for all abdominal organs.