Background: A gap exists between the number of patients on the national organ transplant waiting list and the number of transplants performed. Victims of drug and overdose-related death are increasingly utilized as organ donors. We sought to evaluate the suitability of organs from drug and overdose-related death for organ transplantation. This study compares the proportion of short-term allograft failure of organs procured from patients with drug-related deaths with those without drug-related deaths.
Methods: Organ donations after drug-related deaths (DDD) were compared with organ donations from non-drug-related donations after brain deaths (DBD) and donations after circulatory deaths (DCD) utilizing the Gift of Hope Organ & Tissue Donor Network for a total of 15 months.
Results: Eighty-one donors were identified from each of the DDD, DBD, and DCD groups with 264, 234, and 181 organs transplanted, respectively. The proportions of short-term graft failures were 1.15% in the DDD group compared with 2.14% in the DBD group (p = NS) and 5.52% in the DCD group (p = 0.01). The US Public Health Service increased-risk features for transmission of infectious diseases were present in 70.3% of the DDD cases. Donors from the DDD group were younger on average than those in other groups (33 to 42 years).
Conclusions: The proportion of graft failures in the drug-related deaths (DDD) group was equal to or less than those from other causes of death on short-term follow-up. Drug-related death does not appear to be a contraindication for organ procurement despite increased risk features for infectious disease transmission.
Keywords: Graft failure; Opioid; Organ donation; Overdose; Transplant.