Improving organ procurement practices in Michigan.

Travel to procure deceased donor organs is associated with risk to transplant personnel. In many instances, multiple teams are present for a given operation. We studied our statewide experience to determine how much excess travel this redundancy entails, and generated alternate models for organ recovery.

Comparative analysis of clinical efficacy and cost between University of Wisconsin solution and histidine-tryptophan-ketoglutarate.

Objective: To compare University of Wisconsin solution (Viaspan), the universal standard for organ preservation, with histidine-tryptophan-ketoglutarate solution. An analysis of each solution, in reference to clinical trials with specific organs, is presented and assessed to find the efficacy of each in a clinical environment. Also to view each solution from an economical standpoint, and in the end develop an overall understanding of the key similarities and differences between each solution in order to assess appropriate use of each in a clinical setting.

Donation intentions among African American college students: decisional balance and self-efficacy measures.

Although the need for transplantation among African Americans is high, their donation rates are disproportionately low. This study describes the development and validation of culturally adapted psychosocial measures, including Transtheoretical Model constructs, Stages of Change, Decisional Balance, and Self-efficacy, related to deceased organ and tissue donation for an African American college population. Exploratory and confirmatory analyses for Decisional Balance and Self-efficacy measures demonstrated factor structures similar to previous studies of other behavioral applications, indicated excellent model fit and showed good internal and external validity.

Ex vivo evaluation of human lungs for transplant suitability.

Background: If lungs could be retrieved from non-heart-beating donors, the critical shortage of lungs for transplant could be alleviated. An obstacle to this approach is the inability to predict these lungs' suitability for transplant. We used human lungs deemed unsuitable for transplant to develop a method to perfuse and ventilate human lungs ex vivo to assess gas exchange and vascular resistance, and to perform bronchoscopic inspection and radiographic evaluation.

The timing factor in the consent process.

Organ procurement organizations have been educating the medical profession on the importance of timing during the donation request process. Separating the request for donation from the notification of death has been encouraged when approaching families for consent for organ donation. This study evaluated the timing of the family approach and consent rates.