Major technical and pharmacological advances mean that lung transplantation now oVers a realistic opportunity for long term survival in selected patients with end stage pulmonary disease. 1 2 Unfortunately up to 50% of patients identified as suitable candidates to undergo lung transplan-tation will die from their underlying lung disease before an organ becomes available. 3 4 The severe shortage...

The "brain death" standard as a criterion of death is closely associated with the need for transplantable organs from heart-beating donors. Are all of these potential donors really dead, or does the documented evidence of patients destined for organ harvesting who improve, or even recover to live normal lives, call into question the premise underlying "brain death"? The aim of this paper is to ...

This report describes the importance of perceiving brain death as “terminal phase of life in the acute stage” when medical professionals provide care and support to the donor family, while considering the significance for the donor family to overcome their grief and consent to organ donation when their loved one is unfortunately pronounced brain dead. From the terminal phase viewpoint, the basi...

: Living-donor lobar lung transplantation (LDLLT) was first performed in the USA and thereafter it introduced Japan 1998 as an alternative modality to brain-dead donor (BDLT). Although LDLLT procedure employed for rapidly deteriorating patients who were hospitalized mechanically ventilated at time of transplantation, demonstrated better or comparable post-transplant outcomes comparison BDLT. Le...

Recent commentaries by Verheijde et al, Evans and Potts suggesting that donation after cardiac death practices routinely violate the dead donor rule are based on flawed presumptions. Cell biology, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, critical care life support technologies, donation and transplantation continue to inform concepts of life and death. The impact of oxygen deprivation to cells, organs an...

Introduction: Polyuria and hypernatremia are common problems during the pretransplant care of brain-dead donors. They have not only important role in hemodynamic stability, but also may influence organ transplantation outcomes. The influence of donor hypernatremia in liver transplantation was reported. This study aimed to determine these effects on kidney allograft. Materials and Methods: We re...

Over the past several years, the selection criteria for marginal donor lungs have been extended. However, brain-dead patients with implanted mechanical circulatory support systems have not yet been considered as potential organ donors for lung transplantation. Our report presents the first successful procurement and transplantation of donor lungs from a patient supported by a left ventricular a...