Virology Tests in Brain-Dead Donors: Let the Bills Run Up?

Objectives: In the organ donation process, screening for serologic markers for a selection of agents is essential to prevent infection transmission. The screening of donors for specific potential infections can never absolutely exclude the risk of transmission. For reevaluation of serology tests, we analyzed results of tests requested for all brain-dead donors.

Liver Donation From Marginal Donors: To Donate or Not to Donate?

Objectives: Livers from deceased donors compose nearly 30% of all organ transplants, and about 700 liver transplants are carried out per year. Marginal livers (extended-criteria donors), however, are not usually accepted by recipient teams, and there is only one center for these procedures in Iran. The final decision is made according to criteria that are much more conservative than other globally accepted ones.

Failed Organ Donations After Transfer to an Organ Procurement Unit.

Objectives: In Iran, each medical university can have one organ procurement unit for its own hospital. If the family consents, all patients with brain death must be transferred to the organ procurement unit. When brain death is officially confirmed and the family gives the second consent, the organs are then retrieved in the operating room.

Consequences of More Coordinator Engagement to Take Consent for Organ Donation: Comparisons of New Versus Experienced Staff.

Objectives: The method of obtaining family consent for organ donation after occurrence of brain death in Iran is an opt-in process. Because of complicated cultural, legal, religious, and familial structures in Iran, it is not simple to take consent for organ donation in brain death situations. The process needs the professional staff to be experienced and have an appropriate personality to obtain consent.

Difficult Consent Scale: An Assessment Scale for Anticipated Difficulty in Obtaining Consent for Organ Donation.

Objectives: Seeking consent for organ procurement from a brain-dead patient 's family is challenging, especially in developing countries. In the Middle East, legislation necessitates an opt-in system that engages all first-degree relatives. To improve our success rate in the Masih Daneshvari Organ Procurement Unit in Tehran, Iran, we invented a scale for the consent process to predict the degree of difficulty of each family interview before venturing into it.