[Eligibility to a Maastricht III - type organ donation according to the protocol proposed by the French organ procurement organization (Agence de la biomedicine) among patients in a medico surgical intensive care unit].

OBJECTIVE: Because of graft shortages, an experimental programme of organ donation after Maastricht 3-type circulatory death (M3) has been proposed by the French organ procurement organization (Agence de la biomedicine: ABM). The aim of the study was to estimate how many potential patients were eligible for an M3-type organ donation, amongst deceased patients who have had life-support withdrawn.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: We conducted a retrospective study looking at the notes of deceased patients in a French general intensive care unit (ICU), where organ donation is arranged in DBD donors.

RESULTS: Over the year 2013, 1475 patients were admitted in ICU and 215 died. One hundred and one patients were brain-injured and 26 of them died following a decision to withdrawn life-support and without contraindication to organ donation. Among them, 2 patients (8%) met the criteria for the French M3-type organ donation protocol. A 12.5% increase in organ donation activity of our team and five organ transplantations could have been considered.

CONCLUSION: If M3 organ donation is considered, a significant increase in transplantation would be expected.