Critical care specialists,the missing link in organ procurement for transplantation

The procurement process for organ donation begins with the identification of potential organ donors in emergency or critical care units(CCU),followed by their clinical evaluation,diagnostic procedures,and therapeutic interventions,mostly conducted in CCUs.It concludes with the request for organ donation and,if accepted,the retrieval of organs.Despite most interventions occurring in detection units,there has been a neglect of the strategic role played by critical care specialists(CCS)in managing and caring for brain-dead or near-brain-death patients.Questions arise:Are they willing to undertake this responsibility?Do they fully comprehend the nature of organ procurement?Are they aware of the specific interventions required to maintain possible organ donors in optimal physiological condition?Our objective is to examine the role of CCS in organ procurement and propose ways to enhance it,ultimately aiming to increase and enhance organ donation rates.

Liver transplantation using organs from deceased organ donors: a single organ transplant center experience

BACKGROUND： In 2011, a pilot program for deceased organ donation was initiated in China. We describe the first successful series of liver transplants in the pilot program.METHODS： From July 2011 to August 2012, our center performed 26 liver transplants from a pool of 29 deceased donors. All organ donation and allograft procurement were conducted according to the national protocol. The clinical data of donors and recipients were collected and summarized retrospectively.RESULTS： Among the 29 donors, 24 were China Category II donors（organ donation after cardiac death）, and five were China Category III donors（organ donation after brain death followed by cardiac death）. The recipients were mainly the patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. The one-year patient survival rate was 80.8% with a median follow-up of 422（2-696） days. Among the five mortalities during the follow-up,three died of tumor recurrence. In terms of post-transplant complications, 9 recipients（34.6%） experienced early allograft dysfunction, 1（3.8%） had non-anastomotic biliary stricture,and 1（3.8%） was complicated with hepatic arterial thrombosis.None of these complications resulted in patient death. Notably,primary non-function was not observed in any of the grafts.CONCLUSION： With careful donor selection, liver transplant from deceased donors can be performed safely and plays acritical role in overcoming the extreme organ shortage in China.

我国非国家组织药品集中采购模式比较

目的比较分析我国各省市的药品集中采购方案及相关政策,探讨各地非国家组织药品集中采购模式的特点。方法围绕采购内容、采购规则等比较分析各地的非国家组织药品集中采购模式的特点,以及采购内容、采购环境、采购规则之间的内在关系。结果我国目前的非国家组织药品集中采购模式可划分为药品集中采购组织(group purchasing organization,GPO)、非过评仿制药带量采购、专项药品带量采购、带量议价以及分类采购框架下的带量采购5种。我国非国家组织药品集中采购的特点是分品种、分批次,以政府主导为主,执行机构主要为医疗保障局。结论目前,各地的非国家组织药品集中采购仅覆盖了部分品种的药品,对非过评仿制药进行集中采购是未来的重要趋势,建立公平、科学的质量分组规则是非国家组织药品集中采购亟待解决的重要技术问题。

Long term follow-up and outcome of liver transplantation from hepatitis B surface antigen positive donors

Liver transplant for hepatitis B virus(HBV) currently yields excellent outcomes: it allows to rescue patients with an HBV-related advanced liver disease, resulting in a demographical modification of the waiting list for liver transplant. In an age of patient-tailored treatments, in liver transplantation as well the aim is to offer the best suitable graft to the patient who can benefit from it, also expanding the criteria for organ acceptance and allocation. With the intent of developing strategies to increase the donor pool, we set-up a multicenter study involving 3 Liver Transplant Centers in Italy: patients undergoing liver transplantation between March 03, 2004, and May 21, 2010, were retrospectively evaluated. 1408 patients underwent liver transplantation during the study period, 28(2%) received the graft from hepatitis B surface antigen positive(HBs Ag)-positive deceased donors. The average follow-up after liver transplantation was 63.7 mo [range: 0.1-119.4; SD ± 35.8]. None Primary nonfunction, re-liver transplantation, early or late hepatic artery thrombosis occurred. The 1-, 3-and 5-year graft and patient survival resulted of 85.7%, 82.1%, 78.4%. Our results suggest that the use of HBs Agpositive donors liver grafts is feasible, since HBV can be controlled without affecting graft stability. However, the selection of grafts and the postoperative antiviral therapy should be managed appropriately.

Details determining the success in establishing a mouse orthotopic liver transplantation model

Liver transplantation(LT)is currently the only effective treatment option for endstage liver disease.The importance of animal models in transplantation is widely recognized among researchers.Because of the well-characterized mouse genome and the greater diversity and availability of both genetically modified animals and research reagents,mouse orthotopic LT(MOLT)has become an ideal model for the investigation of liver biology,tissue injury,regulation of alloimmunity and tolerance induction,and the pathogenesis of specific liver diseases.However,due to its complicated and technically demanding procedure,the model has merely been used by only a few research groups in the world for years.For a new learner,training lasting at least a couple of months or even years is required.Most of the investigators have emphasized the importance of elaborate techniques and dedicated instruments in establishing a MOLT model,but some details are often neglected.The nontechnical details are also significant,especially for researchers who have little experience in mouse microsurgery.Here,we review and summarize the crucial technical and nontechnical details in establishing the model of MOLT based on scientific articles and our experience in six aspects:animal selection,anesthesia,perioperative management,organ procurement,back-table preparation,and implantation surgery.We aim to enable research groups to shorten the learning curve and implement the mouse LT procedure with high technical success.

Can adequate hemodynamic management of brain-dead donors improve donor organ procurement?

There is increasing evidence that adequate donor management with a goal of optimization of organ function is essential to maximize the number of organs that can be procured.Therefore,identification of the cause of hemodynamic instability is crucial in order to direct the right therapy.Several donor management goals for better hemodynamic management including serial echocardiography can guide hemodynamic management in potential donors to increase both number and quality of donor hearts.

A Modified, Rapid and Safe Technique of Kidney Only Procurement from Donors after Circulatory and Brain Death (DCD, DBD)

There is currently a lack of standard kidney-only procurement technique. Known techniques such as kidney-only procurement using the standard multi-organ procurement technique could potentially cause more iatrogenic injuries due to less adequate exposure. An alternative using the live open kidney donation technique could also be less than ideal due to prior unknown anatomical variation and potential the inability to adequately topically cool the kidneys. We describe here a novel easy kidney-only technique leading to an improved exposure, better cold perfusion and topical cooling. Herein we show how total bowel evisceration can be achieved by stapling the hepatic hilum, superior mesenteric artery and coeliac trunk. There is a need of a kidney only procurement in order to increase the quality of deceased kidney donation in our opinion. Results have to be compared in the future to determine the potential benefits.