Potential Pool of Organ-Donors in U.S. Is Smaller Than Believed

The potential pool of brain-dead organ donors under the age of 70 in the United States is smaller than previously believed, and would not provide enough organs to for waiting transplant patients even if every one of them became a donor, according to researchers.

In a report in the New England Journal of Medicine, the researchers said a review of hospital medical records of deaths occurring from 1997 through 1999 led them to conclude that the annual number of brain-dead potential organ donors is between 10,500 and 13,800 out of the two million Americans who die each year.

Some previous studies had suggested that the number might be more than twice that high.

"It's a game of small numbers, and every opportunity needs to be maximized," said Ellen Sheehy, who led the study for the Association of Organ Procurement Organizations.

In their study, the researchers identified 18,524 potential donors who had suffered brain death from trauma such as a car crash, massive brain bleeding, or another cause.

"The overall consent rate (the number of families agreeing to donate divided by the number of families asked to donate) for 1997 through 1999 was 54 percent, and the overall conversion rate (the number of actual donors divided by the number of potential donors) was 42 percent," the researchers reported.

They said hospitals with 150 or more beds were more likely to be a potential source of organ donors, with 19 percent of hospitals accounting for 80 percent of all potential donors.

"Since potential and actual donors are highly concentrated in larger hospitals, resources invested to improve the process of obtaining consent in larger hospitals should maximize the rate of organ recovery," the researchers concluded.

Other Sources: New England Journal of Medicine