Identifying Candidates for Organ Donation after Cardiac Death

Assessment of brainstem function can identify patients who will develop cardiac arrest soon enough after withdrawal of life support for organs to be salvaged.

Most donated organs come from brain-dead patients, but donation after cardiac death (DCD) represents a promising avenue for increasing organ donation. Ethical considerations mandate that organs be harvested only after cardiac arrest, but organ viability is compromised if cardiac arrest does not occur soon after withdrawal of life support. Many DCD candidates have severe brain injury that does not meet the criteria for brain death. In these patients, rapid cardiac arrest occurs when brainstem dysfunction results in airway compromise after tracheal extubation. Therefore, investigators have now evaluated the utility of a structured assessment of brainstem function for identifying patients who will have cardiac arrest within 60 minutes of venti…

Reviewing Author

Hooman Kamel, MD

Disclosures

Speaker’s bureauGenentech

Grant / Research supportNational Institutes of Health/National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke; Michael Goldberg Stroke Research Fund

Editorial boardsPLOS One; Scientific Reports

Leadership positions in professional societiesNeurocritical Care Society (Research Committee Member)

Hooman Kamel, MD

Disclosures

Speaker’s bureauGenentech

Grant / Research supportNational Institutes of Health/National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke; Michael Goldberg Stroke Research Fund

Editorial boardsPLOS One; Scientific Reports

Leadership positions in professional societiesNeurocritical Care Society (Research Committee Member)