Achieving donor management goals before deceased donor procurement is associated with more organs transplanted per donor

Background: There is a national shortage of organs available for transplantation. Implementation of preset donor management goals (DMGs) to improve outcomes is recommended, but uniform practices and data are lacking. We hypothesized that meeting DMGs before organ procurement would result in more organs transplanted per donor (OTPD). Methods: The eight organ procurement organization in United Network for Organ Sharing Region 5 selected 10 critical care end points as DMGs. Each organ procurement organization submitted retrospective data from 40 standard criteria donors. "DMGs met" was defined as achieving any eight DMGs before procurement. The primary outcome was ≥4 OTPD. Binary logistic regression was used to determine independent predictors of ≥4 OTPD with a p < 0.05. Results: Three hundred twenty standard criteria donors had 3.6 ± 1.6 OTPD. Donors with DMGs met had more OTPD (4.4 vs. 3.3, p < 0.001) and were more likely to have ≥4 OTPD (70% vs. 39%, p < 0.001). Independent predictors of ≥4 OTPD were age (odds ratio [OR] = 0.94), serum creatinine (OR = 0.65), thyroid hormone use (OR = 2.0), "DMGs met" (OR = 4.4), and achieving the following individual DMGs: central venous pressure 4 mm Hg to 10 mm Hg (OR = 1.9), ejection fraction >50% (OR = 4.0), Pao2:FIO2 >300 (OR = 4.6), and serum sodium 135 to 160 mEq/L (OR = 3.4). Conclusions: Meeting DMGs before procurement resulted in more OTPD. Donor factors and critical care end points are independent predictors of organ yield. Prospective studies are needed to determine the true impact of each DMG on the number and function of transplanted organs.