Are potential organ donors missed on general wards? A 6-month audit of hospital deaths.

Objective: To determine whether potential organ donors are being missed on general wards by the DonateLife Audit, which concentrates on patients dying in emergency departments and intensive care units.

Design, Setting And Patients: Six-month (1 July to 31 December 2012) retrospective audit of patient deaths in a 700-bed metropolitan Australian tertiary referral and teaching hospital.

Main Outcome Measure: Potential organ donor suitability as assessed by a panel of organ donation specialists.

Living with hepatitis C and treatment: the personal experiences of patients.

Aim: The purpose of the study was to explore the issues surrounding chronic hepatitis C, combination therapy and its impact on personal relationships to enhance understanding of the experiences of patients living with hepatitis C. This paper focuses on the experiences of the patients and their partners' experiences will be published separately.

Background: Patients with chronic hepatitis C who have active inflammatory changes on liver biopsy may undergo combination therapy with interferon and ribavirin.