Background: Of the many logistic issues addressed throughout the cadaveric organ donation process, timely access to the operating theater for surgical recovery of organs and tissues can be one of the most problematic. Delay in recovery adds to cost, risks organ viability, and compounds donor family anguish with compromise to donation consent.
Methods: From March 1 to November 30, 2001, 25 cadaveric donors were selected and successfully transferred from local donor critical care units to an off-site facility, which was constructed, equipped, and staffed to allow surgical recovery of organs and tissues. Assessment of the recovery process and outcome results was compared to 42 consecutive, hospital-based, organ recoveries within the Mid-American Transplant Services (MTS) organ procurement organization region.
Results: Twenty-five MTS-facility and 42 hospital organ recoveries were successfully conducted with no technical losses and satisfactory function in all 206 transplanted organs. From the MTS donor group, 7 hearts, 4 lungs, 21 livers, 28 kidneys, and 5 pancreases were successfully transplanted. Statistically significant in the MTS group was higher donor age (44.1 vs. 30.2 years), shorter total donor management time (539 vs. 718 min), reduced delay in start of surgery (25 vs. 77 min), shorter cold ischemia time for recovered pancreases (355 vs. 630 min), and reduced mean cost per donor ($10,636 vs. $12,918). There was no significant difference in race, gender, cause of death, vasopressor requirements, organs per donor recovered (3.12 vs. 3.62) or transplanted (2.60 vs. 3.36), rate of tissue recoveries (68% vs. 67%), total operating room time (207 vs. 200 min.), or cold ischemia time (excluding pancreas).
Conclusions: Cadaveric-donor multiorgan and tissue recovery at this hospital-independent facility was successfully accomplished in a manner indistinguishable from conventional hospital organ and tissue recovery. The intended objectives of improved access to the operating theater were realized along with the added benefit of significant cost savings and convenience to hospital personnel and surgical recovery teams.