The chronic lack of donor organs

European Hospital


When some 4,500 scientists, transplant teams and related social groups from 94 countries gathered in Berlin for the International Congress of the Transplant Society, the event went without a hitch – apart from the news of an organ transplant scandal at Germany’s Göttingen and Regensburg University Hospitals

During the 24th International Congress of the Transplant Society, Dr Beatriz Dominguez-Gil, from the Spanish Transplant Organisation emphasised (see interview) that early identification of potential organ donors is crucial for deceased organ donation rates. This argument was also supported by a small, non-representative study ‘Detection of potential donors in hospitals without neurosurgery in Bavaria, Germany’, from the German Organ Transplantation Foundation (DSO), presented at congress by Dr Angelika Eder. Fourteen hospitals without a neurosurgery department had an in-house coordinator established on a regular basis to detect and analyse potential donors. Preliminary results: the implementation of an in-house coordinator increases awareness of identifying potential donors, resulting in a moderate increase of potential.

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