The Main Features of DCD Donors in China (Hunan province experience)

Abstract

Introduction The shortage of organ resources is considered a significant problem in countries all over the world. How to promote organ donation after citizen death (DCD) has become one of the key issues of organ transplantation. The objective of this paper is to analyze the main features of DCD donors in China. Based on the experience of organ donation in our transplantation center, we aim to explore the improvement of the organ donation in China within recent years. Method We collected 221 cases of successful donation from our transplantation center and analyzed the data by SPSS. In this paper, we comprehensively analyzed the key features of organ donors in China from various aspects, including age, sex, educational level, occupation, cause of death, and family structure. Result Our center, one of the pioneers of DCD work in China, has been devoted to DCD work since 2010. Among more than one thousand potential donors, 221 successfully donated. From 2010 to 2016, our rate of successful donation increased by 16.5 folds. The annual average increase rate is as high as 74.8%. Among the 221 cases, 177 were male donors and 44 were female. All donors were divided into 3 groups according to their age. In the young age group (under 18 years old, n = 30), more than half died of tumors (n = 21). In the middle age group (between 19 and 49 years old, n = 142), 87.32% were male (n = 124). 73.94% of donors in this group received primary and junior school education (n = 105), while 85.9% of them were farmers or urban migrant workers whose jobs were highly instable (n = 122). Their death mainly resulted from craniocerebral trauma by traffic accidents and occupational injuries (n = 90). 54.22% of them were either unmarried, divorced, or has suffered from loss of spouse (n = 77). In the old age group (between 50 and 65 years old, n = 38), 68% of donors died of spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage or brain tumors (n = 26). Conclusion Based on the data above, the organ donors in China were younger than those in developed countries, and mainly were male. Farmers or urban migrant workers with instable jobs, low education levels, and a simple family structure composed the largest part of organ donation. Meanwhile, the main cause of adult donor death is craniocerebral trauma from traffic accidents and occupational injuries. The study was funded by Wu Jieping Medical Foundation (320.6750.15070) and Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province (2016JJ4105).