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Donation After Cardiac Death in the Emergency Department

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Difficult Decisions in Trauma Surgery

Abstract

Trauma patients account for approximately 30% of all deceased organ donors. Nearly 80–90% of organs from deceased trauma donors are procured after determination of death by neurologic criteria, typically in an intensive care unit setting. While technically feasible, only a small proportion of trauma patients become organ donors after cardiac death, and even fewer do so in the emergency department setting. However, the proportion of trauma patients who become donors after cardiac death has increased over the past 30 years. The objective of this chapter was to systematically review the literature to determine whether injured adult patients declared deceased in the emergency department by cardiac criteria should undergo organ procurement efforts and to understand associated organ viability, rate of organ donation, and rate of successful organ transplantation.

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Correspondence to Lisa M. Kodadek .

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Kodadek, L.M., Peetz, A.B., Angelos, P. (2022). Donation After Cardiac Death in the Emergency Department. In: Wilson, K., Rogers, S.O. (eds) Difficult Decisions in Trauma Surgery. Difficult Decisions in Surgery: An Evidence-Based Approach. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-81667-4_31

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-81667-4_31

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-81666-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-81667-4

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