Profile of organ donors in Ceará, northeastern Brazil, from 1998 to 2012

Abstract

The use of cadaver donors for transplantation is often the only alternative in the treatment of patients with organ failure. The purpose of this study was to draw a comprehensive profile of solid organ donors in Ceará, northeastern Brazil, from 1998 to 2012. The study was retrospective and based on secondary data regarding sex, age, blood typing, and cause of brain death obtained from the solid organ donor database of the Ceará Transplantation Center covering the period November 1998 to December 2012. During the study period, 976 donors (69% male) were used. Donors were distributed in 4 age groups as follows: 12.9% <18 years, 50.9% 18-40 years, 28.5% 41-60 years, and 7.7% >60 years. The average age was 35 ± 16 years. On the average, female donors were older than male donors (38.4 ± 17 y vs 33.5 ± 16 y; P < .0001). Men were predominant in the age groups 18-40 y (75.3%; P < .0001) and 41-60 y (59.4%; P < .0001). The main causes of brain death were traumatic brain injury (TBI) (56.7%) and stroke (33.1%). The former was more common in men (P < .0001), the latter in women (P < .0001). TBI was caused by traffic accidents (51.4%), of which 50.7% were motorcycle accidents, and urban violence (22.6%), of which 71.2% were associated with firearms. The number of donations increased in the study period (11.2 donors per million population in 1998-2002 to 68.1 in 2008-2012). In Ceará, solid organ donation is on the rise. The predominant donor profile was young men aged 18-40 years with brain death due to TBI caused by traffic accidents and urban violence.