Immediate impact of COVID-19 on transplant activity in the Netherlands.

The rapid emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented and poses an unparalleled obstacle in the sixty-five year history of organ transplantation. Worldwide, the delivery of transplant care is severely challenged by matters concerning - but not limited to - organ procurement, risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission, screening strategies of donors and recipients, decisions to postpone or proceed with transplantation, the attributable risk of immunosuppression for COVID-19 and entrenched health care resources and capacity. The transplant community is faced with choosing a lesser of two evils: initiating immunosuppression and potentially accepting detrimental outcome when transplant recipients develop COVID-19 versus postponing transplantation and accepting associated waitlist mortality.

Similar 5-Year Estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate Between Kidney Transplants From Uncontrolled and Controlled Donors After Circulatory Death-A Dutch Cohort Study.

Background: Organ shortage persists despite a high rate of donation after circulatory death (DCD) in the Netherlands. The median waiting time for a deceased donor kidney in 2013 was 3.5 years.

[Organ donation after active euthanasia in a patient with a neurodegenerative disease].

In countries where active euthanasia by a physician is allowed under law - Belgium and the Netherlands - physicians are sometimes confronted with patients who want to donate organs after active euthanasia has been performed. This combination of procedures has been reported in Belgium, and this article is the first description of such a case in the Netherlands. It concerns a patient with a neurodegenerative disease who donated organs after euthanasia.