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End-of-Life Care, Including the Role of Intensive Care in Tissue and Organ Donation

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Textbook of Emergency General Surgery

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Abstract

Death is common in the ICU often preceded by withdrawal of life-sustaining interventions. Therefore, health care professionals working in critical care should be experts in patient-family-centred care: this should include evaluating individuals for the potential of organ and tissue donation, and ensuring that the option of organ and tissue donation (OTD) is presented to patients or families. Organ donation is possible after either neurological determination of death (often colloquially known as brain death) or determination of death by cardiocirculatory criteria. Tissue donation is possible in many individuals, and like organ donation, may improve quality of life (e.g. cornea transplant), and saves lives (e.g. allogenic skin donation for use in major thermal injuries). This paper discusses aspects of OTD in the ICU highlighting some issues of importance for the health care professional.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Critical Care Medicine, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada

    Christopher James Doig & Kevin J. Solverson

  2. Department of Medicine, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada

    Christopher James Doig & Kevin J. Solverson

  3. Department of Community Health Sciences, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada

    Christopher James Doig

  4. Division of Pulmonary Medicine, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada

    Kevin J. Solverson

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  1. Christopher James Doig
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  2. Kevin J. Solverson
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Correspondence to Christopher James Doig .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. General, Emergency and Trauma Surgery Dept., Pisa University Hospital, Pisa, Italy

    Federico Coccolini

  2. General and Emergency Surgery Dept., Bufalini Hospital, Cesena, Italy

    Fausto Catena

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Doig, C.J., Solverson, K.J. (2023). End-of-Life Care, Including the Role of Intensive Care in Tissue and Organ Donation. In: Coccolini, F., Catena, F. (eds) Textbook of Emergency General Surgery. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-22599-4_34

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-22599-4_34

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