Brain death and effect of diagnosis on organ donation: a 10-year analysis

Abstract

Purpose: Brain death can be defined as the irreversible loss of brain functions. It is evident that a delay occurred in the diagnosis of brain death will result in the loss of many cadaveric organs and thus, the number of patients waiting for organ transplantation will increase. Despite there being many studies in the literature about the diagnosis and difficulties of brain death, family interviews, and organ donation, the studies regarding the effects of the regulation change in Türkiye on organ donation are limited. The present study includes 10-year retrospective data and it has been conducted to offer an insight to the scientists about the diagnosis of brain death and organ donation. Material and method: The study was conducted by using data obtained from the examination of the retrospective files of patients diagnosed with brain death between 2011 and 2021 at Pamukkale University, School of Medicine after obtaining the approval of the ethics committee. Results: After the study was initiated, the files of 71 patients diagnosed with brain death between 2011 and 2021, were accessed. Due to the missing information in the files of 4 patients, these patients were excluded from the study. Of 67 patients with registered brain death, 36 were male (53.7%) and 31 were female (46.2%). The age average was 49.07. When the treatment units of these patients were evaluated, 50 patients (74.6%) diagnosed with brain death were treated at the neurosurgery intensive care unit, 7 (10.4%) at the neurology intensive care unit, 6 (9%) at the anesthesia intensive care unit, and 4 (6%) at the cardiovascular surgery intensive care unit. Conclusions: The study concluded that the importance of the diagnosis duration of brain death and the number of specialists who diagnosed brain death in the previous years may have affected this process. It is clear that the formal process, which changed after 2014, showed an acceleration in diagnosis. The importance of the interviews with family members besides the brain death diagnosis has emerged as a result of the study.