Cardiac donation after circulatory death: the heart of the matter

Excerpt

Gifting an organ to a stranger whose life is in danger or whose quality of life is severely impaired is perceived as one of the most altruistic human gestures. From among all organs that can be transplanted, the heart bears profound emotive value, and is the organ families most frequently inquire about when discussing organ donation. Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons it is also the organ least susceptible to harvest. Moreover, given that patients with critical heart failure listed for a heart transplant cannot survive on life-support measure for long periods of time, the number of available hearts and heart transplants conducted are limited. Although the number of organ donors in Canada is increasing, largely because of donation after circulatory determination of death (DCDD) following the withdrawal of life-sustaining therapies, the number of hearts harvested has remained constant.1-3 …