An increase in transplants in Ontario, Canada, using non-heart-beating donations

Publié le 9 Oct, 2017

In Ontario (Canada), a recent study published in the CMAJ[1] showed that the new policy to harvest organs from non-heart-beating donors has contributed to the 57% increase in organ donation since 2006.

 

Previously, organs were harvested following brain death which assumed the complete and irreversible loss of any brain function. However, the shortage of donors led the province to reconsider its organ harvesting policy and, from this point onwards, to authorise practitioners to collect organs as soon as the blood circulation stops.

 

The increase seems inadequate to the study authors: “2015 figures confirm 18.2 donors per million people. This is very low compared to the number of potential donors, which is estimated to be between 40 and 89 donors per million individuals“. They believe that “Canada must continue to focus on increasing organ donation and preventing death and disability for potential candidates for transplantation.”

 

For further reading:

 

What about non-heart-beating organs?

Are we heading towards a universal definition of “brain dead”?

From death to organ donation

 

 

[1] Canadian Medical Association Journal

Medical Xpress (25/09/2017)

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