Ethical and End-of-Life Issues - Organ Donation

Ethical and End-of-Life Issues - Organ Donation is a topic covered in the Clinical Anesthesia Procedures.

To view the entire topic, please or .

Anesthesia Central is an all-in-one web and mobile solution for treating patients before, during, and after surgery. This collection of drugs, procedures, and test information is derived from Davis’s Drug, MGH Clinical Anesthesia Procedures, Pocket Guide to Diagnostic Tests, and PRIME Journals. Explore these free sample topics:

-- The first section of this topic is shown below --

In the United States, the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) maintains the national Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) contract. UNOS is responsible for creating and maintaining an organ sharing system to maximize the use of the scarce organ supply and maintain data regarding transplants. In the United States, most organs are retrieved from donors who are declared brain dead; however, an increasing number of organs are being harvested from living donors and from donation after cardiac death (DCD). DCD organ donors are critically ill patients who are expected to die imminently upon withdrawal of life-sustaining treatments. Importantly, data to date suggest that outcomes of organs from DCD donors are not significantly different from those of brain-dead donors, despite a known warm ischemia time.

-- To view the remaining sections of this topic, please or --

In the United States, the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) maintains the national Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) contract. UNOS is responsible for creating and maintaining an organ sharing system to maximize the use of the scarce organ supply and maintain data regarding transplants. In the United States, most organs are retrieved from donors who are declared brain dead; however, an increasing number of organs are being harvested from living donors and from donation after cardiac death (DCD). DCD organ donors are critically ill patients who are expected to die imminently upon withdrawal of life-sustaining treatments. Importantly, data to date suggest that outcomes of organs from DCD donors are not significantly different from those of brain-dead donors, despite a known warm ischemia time.

There's more to see -- the rest of this topic is available only to subscribers.