Donation after Cardiocirculatory Death: A program that we must implement. Experts Argentinean meeting report

The global organ transplant activity remains satisfying less than 10% of the total number of patients in the waiting list. Brain dead donors and living donors have been the most common source of organs used worldwide. Nevertheless, as part of the different measures and policies implemented to increase donation, the use of donors after cardio-circulatory death (DCD), has been propitiated and expanded in the last couple of years. In Europe and North America, DCD programs had increased the number of available donors in up to 30%; but in many countries, the absence of DCD is mainly due to the lack of laws to legislate the process. We aim to report here the result of legal, ethical, procurement and specific organ working groups which met to assess the current regulatory framework, to evaluate the preliminary local experiences; and to produce a document to inform physicians and the community the current status of this program in our country.

Argentina, a pioneer country in procurement and donation has the regulatory and ethical frameworks to enable the transparent use and access to DCDs’, as well as its implantation for organs and tissues in the whole country. In spite of a very preliminary experience, we are proud to present that the process for using DCD has already started. But this novel process requires to be well understood and perceived by the general public and medical community. Education becomes essential.