Evolution of Organ Donation Consent, Retrospective Data on Potential Organ Donors

Identifying the best practices to obtain consent for organ donation involves several strategies. This retrospective analysis of the activity in the field of organ donation identifies the most critical impediments, of which the refusal of families to donate is one of the most frequently encountered. Our main aim was to determine the factors that negatively influence the activity of organ and tissue donations from brain dead donors and to summarize the total number of potential and actual deceased donors, their yearly characteristics, and the organ and tissue donation types performed.

A retrospective descriptive study, covering data from 1 January 2014 to 31 December 2023, was conducted in the intensive care unit of the Emergency Clinical County Hospital of Bihor, a recognized facility engaged in organ donation and transplantation from Romania. All potential and actual deceased donors were included in our research.

During a period of 10 years, between 2014 and 2023, of the 488 potential and actual deceased donors, 355 (72.7%) were potential donors and 133 (27.3%) actual deceased donors.

From 2014 to 2023, a significant percentage [15.28% (133)] of the total number of actual deceased organ donors registered at the national level (870) were identified by us in the Emergency Clinical County Hospital of Bihor.