Estimating the Non—Heart-Beating Donor Potential at a Trauma Center

Journal of Transplant Coordination, Vol. 9, Number 3, September 1999 bank in reviewing death records to improve identification of potential donors.3 These reviews, when modified, can not only report the potential for brain-dead donors, but also for NHBD. In 1997, Daemen et al4 estimated that, after reviewing 109 charts from a major university hospital in the Netherlands, 56 potential non–heart-beating donors were identified, which related to 4.5 to 9.2 potential non–heart-beating donors per 100 hospital deaths. After modifying the death-record review to include NHBD, an OPO was able to estimate its non–heartbeating and brain-death potential donors in a large urban level 1 trauma center. This discussion will report the findings of that review, compare the number of potential brain-dead and non–heart-beating donors, and then estimate the increase in the number of available kidneys for transplantation if NHBD is pursued.