U.S. Cadaver Organ Donation Increases 1.6 Percent in 2001

That compares to a 2.5 percent increase in the number of cadaver donors in 2000.

Cadaver donors provided a total of 19,321 kidneys, livers, hearts, lungs, livers, pancreases and intestines that were transplanted into waiting patients -- an increase of 1.7 percent from 2000, according to AOPO.

The most encouraging development of the year was the 50 percent increase in the number of non-heart-beating donors in 2001. While virtually all cadaver organs during the 1980s and most of the 1990s came after pronouncement of brain death, a growing number of organ procurement organizations now are undertaking the more challenging task of retrieving organs from patients following death by heart failure.

In the year 2001, organs were retrieved from at least 166 non-heart-beating donors, compared to 112 in 2000, according to preliminary data.

Another significant development was the increase in the number of pancreases recovered from donors during 2001.

While the number of pancreases transplanted into diabetic patients only rose by 3.5 percent to a total of 1,405, the number recovered for research jumped by 34 percent to a total of 476, according to the preliminary data.