C oronary artery disease in the cardiac transplant population has been identified as a cause of worse long-term outcomes and accelerated graft vasculopathy. Pre-existing double or triple vessel in the donor heart is associated with a 61.5% post-transplant 30-day mortality. 1 Significant angiographic donor heart coronary artery disease is generally considered a contraindication to transplantatio...

An international conference of transplant physicians, surgeons, and allied health professionals was held in Vancouver, Canada, on September 15 and 16, 2005 to address the care of the live lung, liver, pancreas, and intestine organ donor. The Vancouver Forum was convened under the auspices of the Ethics Committee of The Transplantation Society. Forum participants included over 100 leaders in org...

The report from the Organ Donation Taskforce looking at the potential impact of an opt-out system for deceased donor organ donation in the UK, published in November 2008, is probably the most comprehensive and systematic inquiry to date into the issues and considerations which might affect the availability of deceased donor organs for clinical transplantation. By the end of a thorough and trans...

The variability in deceased organ donation registries worldwide has received little attention. We considered all operating registries, where individual wishes about organ donation were recorded in a computerized database. We included registries which recorded an individual's decision to be a donor (donor registry), and registries which only recorded an individual's objection (non-donor registry...

Heart failure is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. End stage disease often requires heart transplantation, which is hampered by donor organ shortage. Tissue engineering represents a promising alternative approach for cardiac repair. For the generation of artificial heart muscle tissue several cell types, scaffold materials and bioreactor designs are under investigation. In this revi...

This report describes the importance of perceiving brain death as “terminal phase of life in the acute stage” when medical professionals provide care and support to the donor family, while considering the significance for the donor family to overcome their grief and consent to organ donation when their loved one is unfortunately pronounced brain dead. From the terminal phase viewpoint, the basi...

Solid organ transplantation is limited by donor availability. The loss of brain function produces hemodynamic, respiratory, hormonal and metabolic changes that lead to hypotension and organ dysfunction. Management of a potential donor is similar to any critically ill patient. Cardiovascular stability and protective ventilatory support must be pursued, aimed at minimizing the local and systemic ...

This article focuses on contemporary Islamic attitudes towards the question of compensation to a non-relative live organ donor. This article presents the history of the debate on organ transplantation in Islam since the 1950s and the key ethical questions. It continues by presenting the opinions of the mainstream ulema such as Tantawi and Qaradawi. The article ends with a conclusion that there ...

Organ donations from deceased donors provide the majority of transplanted organs in the United States, and one deceased donor can save numerous lives by providing multiple organs. Nevertheless, most Americans are not registered organ donors despite the relative ease of becoming one. We study in the laboratory an experimental game modeled on the decision to register as an organ donor and investi...