Our Brain Death and Organ Donation Experience: Over 12 Years

Nowadays, as the number of patients waiting for organ transplant is increasing, it is important to diagnose brain death in intensive care units and to provide good donor care. We aimed to share our experience of donor care with the diagnosis of brain death in our clinic.

One hundred and fifty-one patients diagnosed in our clinic with brain death between June 2006 to 2018 were studied retrospectively.

The mean age of the 151 patients was 46.6 (1-89) years. Fifty-seven (37.7%) of the 151 patients' families accepted donation. Ten out of 57 patients could not be organ donors for medical reasons. Eighty-four kidneys, 7 hearts, and 40 livers were transplanted to the patients. When the diagnosis at admission to the intensive care unit was examined, it was found that the most common diagnosis was intracranial hemorrhage (36.8%), followed by head trauma (21.05%), drowning in water (3.5%), and firearm injury (3.5%). The apnea test was applied to all cases, but 17 patients could not complete the apnea test. In order to support the diagnosis of brain death, in 63% of patients (n = 95) radiological methods were performed. Cranial computed tomography angiography was performed as a radiological method. All cases were found to have received at least 1 inotropic support. We used dopamine in 41 patients, noradrenaline in 36 patients, dobutamine in 8 patients, and adrenaline in 3 patients. During the 12 months when the organ transplant coordinator was not on duty, there were no organ donors. It is important to maintain an organ and tissue transplant coordinator and an intensive care unit team for organ donation.

In order to increase the cadaver donor pool, it is necessary to increase the number of brain death diagnoses and decrease the rate of family rejection. Therefore, patients with poor neurologic prognosis should be carefully monitored for brain death. Successful family discussions by an experienced and trained organ transplant coordinator should try to increase donation rates by emphasizing the importance of organ donation and the fact that brain death is a real death.