Organ Donation Evidence

During 1988-2013, of 5286 deaths in 17,628 kidney transplant recipients, 934(17.8%) were cardiac. Kidney transplant recipients had greatly increased risk of cardiac mortality compared to the general population, but this has improved over time. Although male recipients have higher absolute risk, female recipients have a… Read More »Cardiovascular Mortality in Transplant Patients; A Population-Based Cohort Study 1988-2013 in Australia and New Zealand (project: CELESTIAL)

We looked at the cause of death for all kidney transplant recipients in Australia and New Zealand 1980-2013. There were 5,284 deaths in 17,628 kidney transplant recipients including 1,061 (20%) cancer deaths. Our study showed cancer mortality in kidney transplant recipients was overall 3 times… Read More »Cancer mortality in kidney transplant recipients: An Australian and New Zealand population‐based cohort study, 1980–2013 (project: CELESTIAL)

Other research suggests patients treated over weekends experience poorer outcomes. One study performed in the USA suggested that fewer organ retrievals happen at weekends, and of those organs retrieved, more are discarded and not used than during the week. The CODE team thought it was… Read More »Weekend effect: analysing temporal trends in solid organ donation (project: ORCHARD)

When potential donors are referred for consideration, if there is potential that they have an infection that could be transmitted to any organ transplant recipients, that donor is usually declined. Our work showed that they are often declined even when tests don’t show these infections.… Read More »Residual risk of infection with blood‐borne viruses in potential organ donors at increased risk of infection: systematic review and meta‐analysis

This study looked at all cases referred to the donation service and found that over time, although more people have been organ donors, a much larger proportion are declined for donation. Referral evaluation of potential donors is resource-intensive. We found the comorbidity burden among donor… Read More »Epidemiology and Comorbidity Burden of Organ Donor Referrals in Australia: Cohort Study 2010–2015 (project: ORCHARD)

Among 17 628 kidney transplant recipients, we found 158 deaths from stroke. This was 19 times higher for women and 9 times higher for men than expected in the general population. Higher risk of stroke death was associated with older age at transplant, ever graft… Read More »Excess Stroke Deaths in Kidney Transplant Recipients: A Retrospective Population-based Cohort Study Using Data Linkage (project: CELESTIAL)

This paper looked at outcomes from all living kidney donors in Australia, 2004–2013, and New Zealand, 2004–2012. We investigated any deaths that had occurred in living donors, and if they had died, what caused their deaths. As expected, because living donors are only allowed to… Read More »Survival in Living Kidney Donors: An Australian and New Zealand Cohort Study Using Data Linkage (project: CELESTIAL)

This paper showed Donation referrals were equally suitable whether from a culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) background or not. We found families of CALD referrals were much less likely to give donation consent than other families. We also found that consent was requested less often… Read More »Effect of language and country of birth on the consent process and medical suitability of potential organ donors; a linked-data cohort study 2010–2015 (project: SAFEBOD)