Effectiveness Factors of Organ Donation in Andalusia

Donation effectiveness is one of the most important factors for the sustainability of the donation transplant process. The aim of this study was to characterize and identify hypothetical factors associated with effective donation (at least one organ transplanted) in the Andalusian population.

Cross-sectional descriptive observational study of a sample of 4144 potential organ donors registered in the Andalusian Information System of Transplant from January 2006 to December 2018. Donors were categorized according to the result of the donation and analyzed depending their effectiveness.

The Andalusian donors were mainly men (60%) and were between 55 and 75 years of age (47.6%). The majority died of brain death (87.45%) caused by a cerebrovascular accident (63.5%). They had cardiovascular risk factors such as hypertension (38.3%), diabetes mellitus (14.8%), dyslipidemia (11.1%), smoking (20.4%), and overweight with a median body mass index of 27.1 kg/m² (IQR, 24.6-29.4). Effective donor rate was 84.5%. Increasing age, diabetes mellitus, increasing body mass index, and the presence of antibodies against hepatitis C virus were hypothetical predictors of an ineffective donation.

In view of our results, we can say that the Andalusian donor population has a high effectiveness rate, presenting hypothetical factors that could allow one to predict the outcome of an effective donation.