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Noneligible Donors as a Strategy to Decrease the Organ Shortage
Author(s) -
Croome K. P.,
Lee D. D.,
Keaveny A. P.,
Taner C. B.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
american journal of transplantation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.89
H-Index - 188
eISSN - 1600-6143
pISSN - 1600-6135
DOI - 10.1111/ajt.14163
Subject(s) - medicine , organ procurement , organ donation , economic shortage , united network for organ sharing , donation , liver disease , surgery , liver transplantation , transplantation , linguistics , philosophy , government (linguistics) , economics , economic growth
Organ procurement organization ( OPO) performance is generally evaluated by the number of organ procurement procedures divided by the number of eligible deaths (donation after brain death [ DBD ] donors aged <70 years), whereas the number of noneligible deaths (including donation after cardiac death donors and DBD donors aged >70 years) is not tracked. The present study aimed to investigate the variability in the proportion of noneligible liver donors by the 58 donor service areas ( DSA s). Patients undergoing liver transplant ( LT) between 2011 and 2015 were obtained from the United Network for Organ Sharing Standard Transplant Analysis and Research file. LTs from noneligible and eligible donors were compared. The proportion of noneligible liver donors by DSA varied significantly, ranging from 0% to 19.6% of total liver grafts used. In transplant programs, the proportion of noneligible liver donors used ranged from 0% to 35.3%. On linear regression there was no correlation between match Model for End‐Stage Liver Disease score for programs in a given DSA and proportion of noneligible donors used from the corresponding DSA (p = 0.14). Noneligible donors remain an underutilized resource in many OPO s. Policy changes to begin tracking noneligible donors and learning from OPO s that have high noneligible donor usage are potential strategies to increase awareness and pursuit of these organs.