TY - JOUR
T1 - Improvements in organ donation
T2 - Riding the coattails of a national tragedy
AU - Goldberg, David
AU - Lynch, Raymond
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd
PY - 2020/1/1
Y1 - 2020/1/1
N2 - The US organ donation system has received attention from the highest levels of government. It has been debated whether increased donation is attributable solely to the opioid epidemic, or to broader performance improvements of the 58 OPOs. We evaluated Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) data of all deceased donors from 1/1/2009 to 12/31/2018. We hierarchically created four categories: (a) donor's mechanism of death coded as “drug intoxication” by the OPO; or donor coded as another mechanism of death but his/her history noted (b) intravenous drug use, (c) non-intravenous drug use (eg, snorting), or (d) no drug use. The first three categories were grouped as “drug-related.” In 2018, there were 2700 more deceased donors than 2009. While the number of donors dying from a non–drug-related death decreased by 52, the number of drug-related deaths increased by 2752 (102% of increase from 2018 vs 2009). While there have been improvements in performance at some OPOs, based on these data it is indisputable that nationally the increased number of donors is almost wholly attributable to the drug epidemic, and reflects the byproduct of a national tragedy, rather than an improved system to be celebrated.
AB - The US organ donation system has received attention from the highest levels of government. It has been debated whether increased donation is attributable solely to the opioid epidemic, or to broader performance improvements of the 58 OPOs. We evaluated Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) data of all deceased donors from 1/1/2009 to 12/31/2018. We hierarchically created four categories: (a) donor's mechanism of death coded as “drug intoxication” by the OPO; or donor coded as another mechanism of death but his/her history noted (b) intravenous drug use, (c) non-intravenous drug use (eg, snorting), or (d) no drug use. The first three categories were grouped as “drug-related.” In 2018, there were 2700 more deceased donors than 2009. While the number of donors dying from a non–drug-related death decreased by 52, the number of drug-related deaths increased by 2752 (102% of increase from 2018 vs 2009). While there have been improvements in performance at some OPOs, based on these data it is indisputable that nationally the increased number of donors is almost wholly attributable to the drug epidemic, and reflects the byproduct of a national tragedy, rather than an improved system to be celebrated.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85076184586&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85076184586&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/ctr.13755
DO - 10.1111/ctr.13755
M3 - Article
C2 - 31742783
AN - SCOPUS:85076184586
SN - 0902-0063
VL - 34
JO - Clinical Transplantation
JF - Clinical Transplantation
IS - 1
M1 - e13755
ER -