This week brings new research straight from donor families and the OR: a qualitative look at how relatives experience intensive care aimed at facilitating donation, a perfusion marker that may predict kidney function, and a case report on recovering organs from a fat embolism death.
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Qualitative study examines how families experience intensive care aimed at facilitating donation.
Published October 7, this analysis captures donor relatives' perceptions of what the authors call intensive care to facilitate organ donation, the period where treatment continues to preserve the possibility of donation. The findings focus on how families understood and emotionally processed that care while facing an emergent loss.
On your shift. This maps directly onto the conversations you have at the bedside. The language and timing families struggle with in this study can sharpen how you frame consent and donor management with grieving relatives.
Urine ammonium during normothermic machine perfusion shows promise as a kidney function marker.
Published October 8, this study evaluated urine ammonium measured during NMP as an indicator of donor kidney function. It adds to the set of real-time perfusion metrics that could inform utilization decisions before transplant.
On your shift. For perfusionists running NMP, this is another data point you may soon be asked to track and report. It could eventually factor into go or no-go calls on marginal kidneys during a case.
Case report documents successful thoracic and abdominal organ use from a fat embolism syndrome donor.
This report describes a multiorgan donor whose cause of death was fat embolism syndrome, with successful recovery and utilization of both thoracic and abdominal organs. It challenges assumptions about viability in donors with this uncommon cause of death.
On your shift. If you encounter a trauma donor with suspected fat embolism, this supports pursuing a full multiorgan workup rather than ruling out organs early. Worth flagging to your medical director during donor evaluation.