A recent retrospective cohort analysis examined the incidence of short-term graft failures of all transplanted individual organs reported to one US procurement organization over a 17-month period. How did the rates of short-term graft failures compare between organs procured from patients with drug-related death versus those procured from patients with brain or circulatory death?
According to the cited reference, “The proportions of short-term graft failures were 1.15% in the drug-related death group compared with 2.14% in the brain death group (p = NS) and 5.52% in the circulatory death group (p = 0.01).” The authors conclude, “The proportion of graft failures in the drug-related deaths group was equal to or less than those from other causes of death on short-term follow-up. Drug-related death does not appear to be a contraindication for organ procurement despite increased risk features for infectious disease transmission.”
Kim, T., Chhabra, N., Weech, D.M. et al. Short-Term Graft Failure of Organs Procured from Drug-Related Deaths Compared with Other Causes of Death. J. Med. Toxicol. 17, 37–41 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13181-020-00801-8