Increase in Cadaver Organ Donation Rate at a Tertiary Care Hospital: 23 Years of Experience

BACKGROUND: Transplantation of Human Organ Act was passed in India in 1994 to streamline organ donation and transplantation activities. It is time to retrospect ourselves and analyze the method to increase organ donation. TYPE OF STUDY: Retrospective observational analysis. OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the change in organ donation rate and reasons for changes in rates. SUBJECTS: Brainstem dead declared patients whose family consented for organ donations in the last 23 years (1997–2019) at Ruby Hall Clinic, Pune, India. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Retrospectively demographic data of the brainstem dead declared donors, the primary diagnoses, comorbidities, and the complete data of their management till organ retrieval was assessed. RESULTS: One hundred cases in the age group 15–75 years (mean 41.6 ± 15.3 years) of brainstem death consented for organ donation were retrospectively studied. The period was divided into two groups, group I and group II included study duration from 1997 to 2013 and from 2013 to 2019 respectively. During the entire period, though the major cause of donor death remained road traffic accidents (RTA) in both the groups (84.21% till 2013 vs 48.15% after 2013), the proportion of donors declared brain dead due to RTA dipped significantly after 2013 (p = 0.004) and the non-RTA causes of brain dead contributed more than RTA causes (51.85% non-RTA vs 48.15% RTA). The major contributor among non-RTA causes was intracranial bleeds (5.26% before 2013 vs 33.33% after 2013, p = 0.014). Compared to the previous 17 years (from 1997) there were more than fourfold rise in the rate of transplantation in the last 6 years (2014–2019) at our institute. Kidneys were retrieved from 90% donors followed by cornea 84%, liver 65%, heart 22%, skin 7%, lungs 6%, and pancreas 5%. CONCLUSION: We have observed that the cadaveric organ donation rate significantly improved after 2013. Reasons might be widening of the donor pool by the selection of more of non-RTA brain death donors over RTA, acceptability of elderly population donor (>60 years) by our transplant teams, early identification of potential organ donor, and better protocol-based management of the cadaver organ donor. HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE: Zirpe KG, Suryawanshi P, Gurav S, Deshmukh A, Pote P, Tungenwar A, et al. Increase in Cadaver Organ Donation Rate at a Tertiary Care Hospital: 23 Years of Experience. Indian J Crit Care Med 2020;24(9):804–808.