The feasibility of organ salvage from non-heart-beating trauma donors

Background: Blunt trauma patients without vital signs on admission are potential non-heart-beating donors. Objective: To review the feasibility of postmortem visceral perfusion and organ donation in blunt trauma patients without vital signs. Design: A retrospective case series of blunt trauma victims who were declared dead in the emergency department. Setting: A level I trauma center. Main Outcome Measures: Factors potentially precluding donation and potential donor yield. Results: The mean trauma-to-death interval was 71 minutes (<60 minutes in 57% of the cases). Injuries likely to interfere with in situ perfusion were present in 41% of the cases. The tissue donation consent rate was 45%. Assuming a similar organ donation consent rate, the potential donor yield was 9% after excluding victims who were younger than 60 years of age, warm ischemia times that were less than 60 minutes, and patients who had injuries precluding perfusion. Conclusions: The potential organ yield from non-heart-beating, blunt trauma victims is low, which highlights the ethical and legal problems of this approach.