Transplant Outcomes From Deceased Donors Dying With Burns Injury, a Systematic Review

The ever-expanding organ supply and demand gap necessitates alternate sources of organ donors. Initially thought to be a contraindication, organ procurement from nonsurvivable burns patients is possibly an additional organ donor source. We aimed to conduct a systematic review investigating the prevalence and outcomes of the use of burn victims as a source of organ donation for transplantation.

Medline and EMBASE were searched between 1990 and 2020, using the following keywords: organ procurement, organ donation, organ transplantation, and burns. Studies were not excluded based on patient numbers and included both published abstracts/conference proceeding and journal articles. Studies were excluded if specific organs were not identified or if posttransplant outcomes were not recorded. Primary and secondary outcomes of interest were post-transplantation organ function and complications respectively.

Six manuscripts met study inclusion criteria. Fourteen burns donors were identified, including both donation after circulatory death and donation after brain death pathways. The total body surface area of burn ranged from 4% to 90%. A total of 4 hearts, 2 lungs, 8 livers, 1 pancreas, and 24 kidneys were transplanted with varying duration of follow-up and outcomes.

A very small number of studies have reported the posttransplant outcomes of organs derived from victims of burn injury, including very limited information regarding graft function in the short or long term. Hence, recommendations for the utilization of organs from victims of burn injury should remain guarded and subject to surveillance.