Background: Organ shortage is the main limiting factor for further dissemination of organ transplantation therapies; implementation of brain-death (BD) criteria for organ donation purposes is essential for overcoming this limitation. Investigating and characterizing the effects of this intervention on organ availability and subsequent orthotopic organ transplantation in Asia, the world's most populous continent, should shed light on a global issue. The aim of this study was to describe temporal trends in brain-death donors (BDDs) and deceased-donor transplants (DDTs) in the Asian continent.
Methods: We used data from the Global Observatory on Donation and Transplantation (GODT), the world's most comprehensive source of data relating to organ donation and transplantation activities. Available data on the number of BDDs and DDTs in 48 Asian countries was collated and analyzed for the years 2000-2019.
Results: The number of BDDs in Asia increased progressively, from 25 BBDs in 2000 to 5357 in 2019. The number of DDTs increased concomitantly, albeit with an initial decline between 2004 and 2008, with an exponential increase in the number of kidney and liver transplants, followed by heart and lung transplants. Data from the latest year with complete data (2019) demonstrated 25,557 deceased-donor organs were transplanted, representing a >3-fold increase in the number of transplanted organs compared with the nadir in 2008.
Conclusion: Although the Asian continent has noticed a rapid increase in BD transplantation activities during the past 2 decades, it is self-evident that further dissemination and adoption of BD donation are fundamental to reducing organ shortage gap.
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