A panel of pediatric experts met to develop recommendations on the technical requirements specific to pediatric controlled donation after planned withdrawal of life-sustaining therapies (Maastricht category III). The panel recommends following the withdrawal of life-sustaining therapies protocol usually applied in each unit, which may or may not include immediate extubation. The organ retrieval process should be halted if death does not occur within 3 h of life-support discontinuation. Circulatory arrest is defined as loss of pulsatile arterial pressure and should be followed by a 5-min no-touch observation period. Death is declared based on a list of clinical criteria assessed by two senior physicians. The no-flow time should be no longer than 30, 45, and 90 min for the liver, kidneys, and lungs, respectively. At present, the panel does not recommend pediatric heart donation after death by circulatory arrest. The mean arterial pressure cutoff that defines the start of the functional warm ischemia (FWI) phase is 45 mmHg in patients older than 5 years and/or weighing more than 20 kg. The panel recommends normothermic regional perfusion in these patients. The FWI phase should not exceed 30 and 45 min for retrieving the pancreas and liver, respectively. There is no time limit to the FWI phase for the lungs and kidneys. The panel recommends routine sharing of experience with Maastricht-III donation among all healthcare institutions involved in order to ensure optimal outcome assessment and continuous discussion on the potential difficulties, notably those related to the management of normothermic regional perfusion in small children.
Keywords: Agonal phase; Circulatory arrest; Donation after circulatory death; Functional warm ischemia; Normothermic regional perfusion; Sedation; Treatment discontinuation.
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