Evidence-Based Practice Guidelines for Organ Procurement

Abstract

Organ procurement is a complex and unique procedure that warrants the creation of an evidence-based practice guideline. Anesthesia care of the donor may adversely impact the fate of organs once transplanted. The following article gives a brief review of the literature, and a guideline for providing anesthesia during an organ procurement which was created for a large, level-one, academic facility. Care of the organ donor during the preoperative phase is frequently discussed in the literature; however, there remains a need for further information on the care of the organ donor intraoperatively.

Keywords: anesthetic management; brain death; circulatory death; organ procurement.