Profile of Heart Donors from the Human Valve Bank of the Santa Casa de Misericórdia de Curitiba

INTRODUCTION: Human heart valves are used as replacement valves and have satisfactory functional results compared with conventional prostheses. OBJECTIVE: Characterize the profile of effective heart donors from the human valve bank of the santa casa de misericórdia de curitiba and analyze the association between the profile variables. METHODS: It consists of a retrospective and quantitative study of electronic medical records from heart donors for heart valves. every heart donation made to the bank between january 2004 and december 2014 was studied. RESULTS: 2,149 donations were analyzed, from donors aged 0 to 71 years old, with an average of 34.9 ± 15.03 years old. most donors were male 65.7% (n=1,411) and 34.3% (n=738) were female. among the most frequent causes of the donors' death are trauma at 53% (n=1,139) and cerebral vascular accident at 34.2% (n=735). there was significant statistical association between the analyzed variables. CONCLUSION: There has been an improvement in brazil's donation rate, being essential that the tissue banks work together with the state and federal district centers for notification, procurement and distribution of organs in order to increase the number of donors.