Hospital Sant Joan is a pioneer in the community in the donations to stopped heart.

This unit, composed of the DRA. Lorraine Peiró and the nurse sea Alba, featured during the last quarter of 2009 with a donor to these characteristics and the current year have already reported four cases. “What we value as a figure significant, taking into account that the potential donor must meet certain requirements (as being under 60 years of age, have had a tumour disease not malignant and have not been diabetic or hypertensive long-term, among others), as well as the difficulty of carrying out this technique and speed of action and rapport which is required to” “the different teams which take part in it”, noted Peiró.

In this sense, the donation to stationary heart requires a good infrastructure of the services involved: emergency, surgery, urology, UCI, SAMU, judges and medical examiners. “This has been possible by means of regular meetings between the unit for the coordination of transplants and the mentioned services, transmit them, in addition, illusion in the task”, added the officials, “there is a basic work with the SAMU, by raising awareness of the speed with which must deal with a potential donor (a patient suffers a heart stop and receive advanced cardiopulmonary resuscitation without)” success for a long time (usually 30 minutes) “.”

Performance and development of the technical Protocol

In this case, the SAMU gives the warning to the CICU (coordination and emergency information center), and it communicates to the emergency room and the coordinators of transplants at the hospital at the time that comes the potential donor.
Thereafter, er continue maneuvers of resuscitation, and in case of death the Transplant Coordinator assesses whether the donor is valid or not, pursuant to the aforementioned requirements. Then, if the family accepts the donation has signing authority. Highlight the responsible, families are generally aware and often access to the donation.

If this happens, is the application of the technique, in which surgeons perform a groin pipe and placed catheters in an artery and a vein. Through them starts the phase of “perfusion” of the kidney (phase of cooling due to the spread of a fluid through the body).

“Times are fundamental.” There has to be witnesses to mark the moment of death; Thus times need to be accurate and requires that all work together. “As an example, since that is the case the stop heart until that begins the perfusion must within a maximum of one hour”, noted the head of the unit.

Renewal of a classic method

Hospital Sant Joan is one of the few Spanish centres that carry out this procedure, among which are hospital Clínico San Carlos in Madrid, clinic of Barcelona, and Virgen de las Nieves in Granada, among others. From the ONT (national transplant organisation) and the regional coordination of transplants of the region is intended to promote this type of donation.

Currently, the donation in asystolic in more hospitals due to a decline in donor Classics (for Encephalic death), as a result of the decrease in traffic accidents and, on the other hand, advances experienced in the field of neurosurgery is promoting. Therefore, it is a valid way to contemplate, but mindful that requires a running time, as well as a major collective effort.