Brain-Dead Donors on Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation.

Objectives: To describe donors after brain death with ongoing extracorporeal membrane oxygenation and to analyze the outcome of organs transplanted from these donors.

Design: Retrospective analysis of the national information system run by the French Biomedicine Agency (CRISTAL database).

Setting: National registry data of all donors after brain death in France and their organ recipients between 2007 and 2013.

Immune status and apoptosis activation during brain death.

The present study evaluates the role of the inflammatory status and apoptosis activation in the development of organ dysfunction after brain death using plasma assays and macroarray analysis on skeletal muscle biopsies to look for evidence of remote tissue damage in two intensive care units in France and one in Belgium. As controls, we used patients undergoing hip surgery and healthy volunteers. Causes of brain death in the 85 consecutive patients included in the study were cardiac arrest (n = 29; 34%), stroke (n = 42; 49%, with 38 patients having hemorrhagic stroke), and head injury (n = 14; 17%).

Evidence that graft-site candidiasis after kidney transplantation is acquired during organ recovery: a multicenter study in France.

Background: Infections of renal grafts with Candida species can induce life-threatening complications in the recipient.

Methods: A 9-year retrospective study involving all of the transplant centers in France was designed to determine the incidence, origin, characteristics, and outcome of graft-site candidiasis that occurred after kidney transplantation. Yeasts cultured from preservation or drainage solutions and graft specimens were recorded.

An underrecognized source of organ donors: patients with brain death after successfully resuscitated cardiac arrest.

Objective: To identify predictors of brain death after successful resuscitation of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA), with the goal of improving the detection of brain death, and to evaluate outcomes of solid organs harvested from these patients.

Design And Setting: Prospective observational cohort study in a medical and surgical unit of a nonuniversity hospital.

Patients: Patients with successfully resuscitated OHCA were prospectively included in a database over a 7-year period.

[Organ and tissue shortage in France].

Introduction: Despite an increase in the number of brain deaths over the past 10 years, France faces a shortage of organs for transplantation. A high percentage of families oppose organ donation. Over the past decade, the mean age of organ donors has risen by 10 years.

A survey on patients admitted in severe coma: implications for brain death identification and organ donation.

Objective: To identify factors to improve the identification of brain dead patients in intensive care units (ICUs).

Design And Setting: Prospective study conducted in 79 ICUs in 54 hospitals.

Patients: All hospitalized patients with a Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score less than 8.