Organ donation in the Basque country: 18 years experience.

Purpose: We reviewed of the trends in organ donation within a coordinated transplant program over the last 18 years.

Methods: Two thousand three hundred and fifty five potential donors (PD) were evaluated in 18 years including 1282 who were effective donors (EDs) and the 4081 harvested organs. A retrospective analysis of various parameters was performed comparing four different periods: 1981 to 1986 (P0); 1987 to 1992 (P1); 1993 to 1998 (P2); and 1999 to 2004 (P3).