The frequency of organ donation and the clinical characteristics of donors with brain death before and after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Rasht, Iran

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused changes in daily life, disruption of hospital performance and medical services, especially in the organ transplant department. Objective: This study was conducted to compare the number and frequency of organ donation and transplantation in the period before and after the outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic in the transplant center of northern Iran. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 75 patients with brain death in a period of three years in Rasht. Demographic information, underlying disease, history of smoking and drug use, cause of brain death, donated organ, number of donated organs per patient, type of transplanted organ and place of transplantation inside or outside the province were recorded. Then, these factors were compared based on the time of the start of the covid-19 pandemic in Iran, in two time periods from August 2018 to March 2019 (pre-pandemic period) and March 2019 to September 2021 (pandemic period). The recorded data was analyzed by SPSS version 21 software with a significance level of less than 0.05. Results: Comparing the characteristics of donor patients in the two investigated time periods, the average age of donor patients during the COVID-19 pandemic was significantly higher than the age of patients before the COVID-19 pandemic (P<0.001). In examining the causes of brain death, the most common cause in the time period before the spread of COVID-19 was trauma and after the COVID-19 pandemic, cerebrovascular causes (P=0.010). In the examination of the distribution frequency of organ donation, as well as the average number of donated organs per donor during the COVID-19 pandemic, it was significantly less than the number of donated organs before the outbreak of the pandemic (P<0.001). Conclusion: The results of this study show the significant impact of COVID-19 on the process of organ donation and transplantation.