Uncontrolled donation programs after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. An estimation of potential donors.

Abstract

Objective To determine the number of potential deceased organ donors from out-of- hospital cardiac arrest cases (OHCA) attended by public physician-led emergency medical services in Spain, based on data recorded in the nationwide Spanish OHCA Registry (OHSCAR). Material and methods We analysed OHSCAR data on deceased OHCA patients in Spain during 13 months (1/10/2013 to 31/10/ 2014). Variables included age, sex, estimated OHCA time, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) start time and outcome. Inclusion criteria were: age 16–60 years, witnessed OHCA, no return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) and time interval <15 min between OHCA occurrence and CPR initiation. Results Of a total 8789 cases, 3290 met the age criteria; of these, CPR was not witnessed in 745 cases. Among the remaining 2545 patients, 141 were included in uncontrolled donation after cardiac death (uDCD) programs, 902 arrived at the hospital with ROSC, 64 arrived with ongoing CPR and 15 cases were lost to follow-up. Of the remaining 1423 without ROSC, CPR initiation time was not recorded in 454 cases and 398 did not meet the time criteria <15 min between OHCA and CPR initiation. Finally, 571 met all the criteria and could have been potential donors. There were significant differences in the actual donors percentage from potential donors percentage between provinces with and without donor programs (141/322 = 43.8% versus 0/390 = 0%), but there were no differences in ROSC between the two types of provinces (418/1320 = 31.7% versus 652/1970 = 33.4%). Conclusions Many potential donors are missed in current clinical practice. uDCD programs are few and underused even in a country with high rates of organs transplantation.