Retrospective Analysis of Organ Donation Rates in Patients with Brain Death Diagnosis in a University Hospital

In this study, demographic and clinical characteristics and organ donation rates of patients diagnosed with brain death were investigated by reviewing the records of 48 patients, who were diagnosed with brain death between 01.01.2015 and 31.12.2017 in our hospital. The mean age was 39.88±20.57 (1-84) and the brain death occured mostly after ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke (52.1%) and trauma (27.1%). The time period between intensive care hospitalization and brain death diagnosis was 35.15±33.58 hours. Apnea test was performed in all cases and supportive tests were applied to 15 cases (31.25%). Twenty family members (41.7%) responded positively to organ donation. Age, gender, hospital admission, and the time between intensive care hospitalization and brain death detection did not affect the family donation rate (p = 0.796, p= 0.461, p= 0.078, p= 0.392, respectively). Three donors were found unsuitable for medical reasons. 31 organs from 17 donors were transplanted. We have determined that organ donation rate in our hospital is above Turkey's average rate (26.4%) in the same period. Also, we found the demographic data of the patients and the duration of brain death diagnosis did not affect the rate of donation