Paving the Road for the Adoption of Normothermic Regional Perfusion in Canada

John Basmaji; Charles Weijer; Anton Skaro; Andrew Healey; Sam D Shemie; Marat Slessarev

doi:10.1097/CCE.0000000000000553

Paving the Road for the Adoption of Normothermic Regional Perfusion in Canada

Crit Care Explor. 2021 Oct 28;3(11):e0553. doi: 10.1097/CCE.0000000000000553. eCollection 2021 Nov.

Authors

John Basmaji¹, Charles Weijer^{2

3

4}, Anton Skaro⁵, Andrew Healey^{6

7}, Sam D Shemie^{8

9}, Marat Slessarev^{1

7

10}

Affiliations

¹ Division of Critical Care, Department of Medicine, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University, London, ON, Canada.
² Department of Medicine, Western University, London, ON, Canada.
³ Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Western University, London, ON, Canada.
⁴ Department of Philosophy, Western University, London, ON, Canada.
⁵ Department of Surgery, Western University, London, ON, Canada.
⁶ Division of Emergency Medicine, Department of Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada.
⁷ Trillium Gift of Life Network, Toronto, ON, Canada.
⁸ Division of Critical Care Medicine, Montreal Children's Hospital, McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, QC, Canada.
⁹ Canadian Blood Services, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
¹⁰ Brain & Mind Institute, Western University, London, ON, Canada.

Abstract

Donation after circulatory determination of death has increased the number of organs available but can result in worse recipient outcomes than organs recovered from donors after neurologic death. Normothermic regional perfusion is a novel tool that can circumvent the shortcomings of donation after circulatory determination of death. However, its implementation may pose a threat to existing laws surrounding death declaration. Here, we propose a research agenda that will allow this technology to be introduced within current Canadian organ donation frameworks.

Keywords: cardiac death; determination of death; extracorporeal membrane oxygenation; organ donation; transplantation.