Attitude of health professionals toward cadaveric tissue donation.

Introduction: A positive attitude toward organ donation would be expected among health professionals from transplant centers with active donor activities. However, acceptance and knowledge about cadaveric tissue donation has been insufficiently studied.

Objective: The objective of this study was to analyze the knowledge and attitude of health professionals toward cadaveric tissue donation.

Methods: An anonymous survey composed of 23 questions was given to health professionals from 2 university hospitals with donation experience. Sociodemographic and professional characteristics were described to analyze knowledge and acceptance of cadaveric tissue donation.

Results: Among 600 distributed questionnaires we collected 514 completely answered surveys. Gender distribution was 399 females/115 males of ages ranging from 18-65 years, namely 18-28 years, 27%; 29-39 years, 31%; 40-50 years, 32%; and 51-65 years, 10%. Among the sample, 31% of health professionals had never been in contact with a transplant recipient. In this study 99.4% had knowledge about cadaveric organ donation compare with 89.7% about tissue donation. The knowledge about various types of tissue donation was as follows: eye, 96%; musculoskeletal, 87%; skin, 72%, and cardiovascular, 67%. In the sample, 93% and 92% accepted the opportunity to receive an organ or tissue transplantation, respectively. The acceptance of a tissue varied according to the type: cardiovascular, 93%; ocular, 94%; skin, 89%; and musculoskeletal, 87%. Participant acceptance of a relative's tissue donation was 74%, refusal was 22%, and with doubts was 4%.

Conclusions: Insufficient knowledge about cadaveric tissue was demonstrated among health professionals more exposed to the donation process. These results highlighted the importance of health professional's education to facilitate public information about organ and tissue donation.