[Procedure for multiorgan procurement (heart, liver, kidneys)]

A significant growth in transplantation activity has been recorded in the past decade, namely in transplantations of the heart and liver. The numbers of transplantations of the lungs, and of the combination of pancreas with kidneys have increased to a smaller extent. The number of transplanted kidneys has become stabilized during the past several years. The development of organ transplantations led to a change of conception in the procurement of cadaveric organs from the until now performed procurement of a single organ to multiorgan procurements where in addition to the kidneys at least one other organ is procured. In countries with the highest number of multiorgan procurements the latter form as many as 80% of the total number of cadaveric procurements. Since January 1, 1995 a principle has been officially recognized in the Slovak Republic where an agreement with organ donation is presumed. Procurements of organs do not take place in cases when the donors have made during their lives a written or any other kind of declaration disapproving any intervention into their corporal integrity. Organs are also not procured in cases of foreigners, persons under legal sentence and those whose identities cannot be proved. The authors describe the technique of multiorgan procurement (heart, liver, kidneys) as well as contraindications to procurements of individual organs. (Fig. 2, Tab. 1, Ref. 12.).