Twelve years' experience with non-heart-beating cadaveric donors.

From 1983 to August 1995, the University of Miami Organ Procurement Organization evaluated 41 candidates for non-heart-beating cadaveric donation and determined that 34 patients met the criteria. All patients had irreversible brain injury incompatible with survival. All families gave permission for withdrawal of life support and for tissue and organ donation after cardiac arrest. Thirteen donors died in the operating room, and 9 died in the ICU or emergency department. Four of the 9 patients who died in the ICU had undergone femoral cannulation. The remaining 12 donors were brain-dead but had an unpredicted cardiac arrest before laparotomy. All kidneys were preserved by using machine pulsatile perfusion, and 21 kidneys were transported to other centers. Of the 35 transplanted kidneys, 26 (74%) had immediate function, 6 (17%) had delayed graft function, and 3 (9%) were not used for other reasons. Five of the six transplanted livers had immediate function.