Potential for organ donation in Victoria: an audit of hospital deaths.

Full Abstract

OBJECTIVE:
To determine the potential for organ donation in 12 Victorian hospitals.

DESIGN AND SETTING:
Prospective audit of all deaths in 12 major public hospitals in the state of Victoria between January 2002 and October 2004.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES:
Number of organ donors and potential organ donors (patients with brain death or likely to progress to brain death within 24 hours if supportive treatment continued), requests for organ donation and consents. Unrealised potential donors (organ donation not requested) were categorised by an independent panel of intensivists as category A (brain death formally diagnosed); B (brain death not formally diagnosed but criteria likely to be fulfilled); and C (potential to progress to brain death within 24 hours).

RESULTS:
There were 17,230 deaths, 280 potential organ donors and 220 requests for organ donation. The 60 unrealised potential organ donors were classified as category A (3), B (17) and C (40). Consent rate was 53% to 65%, depending on the definition of potential donor (categories A, B and C or category A only). Consent rate was lower when discussions about organ donation were held by trainees or registrars (21%) than when specialists were present (57%) (P = 0.004). A maximum practically achievable organ donation rate for Victoria was estimated to be 15 to 17 donors per million population (current rate, 9 per million population).

CONCLUSIONS:
The potential for organ donation in Victoria is limited by a small organ donor pool. There is potential to increase the number of organ donors by increasing the consent rate (lower than expected from public surveys), the identification of potential organ donors (particularly those likely to progress to brain death if supportive treatment is continued), and requests for organ donation.

Learn Faster Today Improve your study skills

Author information

Author/s: Opdam, Helen I (HI); Silvester, William (W);

Affiliation: Department of Intensive Care, Austin Health, Melbourne, VIC, Australia. helen.opdam(-atsign-)austin.org.au

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Multicenter Study; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

Journal: The Medical journal of Australia (Med J Aust), published in Australia. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2006-Sep; vol 185 (issue 5) : pp 250-4

Dates: Created 2006/09/04; Completed 2006/09/28; Revised 2007/03/15;

PMID: 16948619, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

Comments and Corrections

CommentIn: Med J Aust. 2007 Feb 5;186(3):157. (PMID: 17309410)

ErratumIn: Med J Aust. 2006 Oct 2;185(7):408.

External Links for this article (including full text providers, if available):

Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.

This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.

MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Hospital Mortality
Hospitals, Public - statistics & numerical data
Humans
Medical Audit

Prospective Studies
Tissue Donors - statistics & numerical data
Tissue and Organ Procurement - statistics & numerical data
Victoria

These are the highest related articles currently in the database:

See 100+ related articles.