18% of donated organs cannot be transplanted due to ‘poor resuscitation’

“In brain dead people, the condition progresses quickly. If they do not resuscitate promptly and optimize the donor source, their organ function will deteriorate and they may not be able to be used, which means missing the opportunity to save the lives of many patients waiting for a transplant.” , Prof. Dr. Nguyen Quoc Kinh, Chairman of the Vietnam Association of Anesthesia and Resuscitation, said at Training on organ tissue donation and transplantation from brain dead peopleNovember 15.

Brain dead people will have nervous system dysfunction, hypothalamic-pituitary axis function, causing heart damage, reduced circulatory volume, low blood pressure, leading to reduced blood flow to organs such as the heart, lungs, and blood vessels. liver, kidney, pancreas. When organs fail, doctors cannot take them for transplant to other patients.

“Brain death affects the cardiovascular system and reduces organ perfusion. Therefore, good resuscitation of brain dead people helps increase the quantity and quality of transplanted organs,” Professor Kinh said, adding that to resuscitate to avoid multiple organ failure, the Doctors need to resuscitate circulation, breathing, and metabolism. Treat anemia, coagulation disorders, and hypothermia to ensure a good source of transplant organs.

Associate Professor Dong Van He, Director of the National Organ Transplant Coordination Center, also said that not all donated organs are medically qualified for transplantation due to some infectious diseases and cancer; Pre-existing organ failure or brain death failure. Therefore, organ resuscitation when brain dead is very important. For a transplant to be successful and live in the recipient, the removed organ must be good. Therefore, right from the time the patient is transferred to the hospital, they must be well resuscitated from the out-of-hospital emergency system, emergency 115.

In addition, in the process of receiving organs from deceased donors, the most urgent thing is time. Each organ has a different “life” period outside the body, from 4 to 36 hours. This is the “tolerance threshold” for anemia of internal organs. If this “golden” period is lost, all efforts to regenerate life will become worthless.

The first organ transplant from a brain-dead donor in Vietnam was performed in May 2010. As of November 2024, after 32 years of organ transplantation and 14 years of taking organs from brain-dead donors, the whole country recorded 183 cases of brain-dead organ donation. The number of brain-dead people donating organ tissue has increased recently, but Vietnam’s number of brain-dead people donating organs is still among the lowest in the world. Of these, the rate of organ transplants from brain-dead donors is only 6%, while the remaining organ transplants are from living donors. This fact goes against the world trend, because in many countries, organ donations from brain-dead people account for the majority. Compared to Spain and the US, the rate of brain-dead people donating organs is 300 times higher than in our country.

Organ transplantation is one of the most important achievements of human medicine since the 20th century. From the first kidney transplant in 1992 until now, the country has had 9,000 organ transplants performed. Among them, mainly kidney transplants with more than 8,000 cases; liver transplant 650; heart transplant 90; lung transplant 11; There are still a number of intestinal and other organ transplants.

At the training session, Mr. Nguyen Trong Dien, Director of the Quang Ninh Department of Health, said that this province is preparing human and material resources, moving towards organ transplantation in 2025. Currently, doctors from two general hospitals province and Vietnam – Sweden Uong Bi, is studying transplant technology transfer at Viet Duc Hospital. Currently, the Ministry of Health has licensed 29 hospitals to perform this technique.