Monday blues of deceased-donor liver transplantation.

BACKGROUND

There is a constant and global shortage of deceased-donor organs for transplantation. Ways to identify areas for securing potential deceased-donor organs may improve the supply and hence benefit more patients in need of transplantation.

METHODS

We looked into the disparity of the number of deceased-donor liver transplantation (DDLT) performed at our hospital on different days of the weeks from January 2000 to the end of December 2009 (237 DDLTs). The number of DDLT performed on each day was compared with the other days of the week.

RESULTS

It was apparent that there were fewer DDLTs on Mondays, as shown by the numbers of DDLT performed on different days of the week in an ascending order: Monday 18 (7.6%), Sunday 30 (12.7%), Thursday 34 (14.3%), Friday 36 (15.2%), Wednesday 38 (16.0%), Tuesday 40 (16.9%), and Saturday 41 (17.3%). The difference reached statistical significance when Monday was compared with Tuesday (P=0.019), Wednesday (P=0.010), Friday (P=0.021), and Saturday (P=0.007). It was twice as unlikely a DDLT would be performed on Monday as compared with other days. Such a trend did not change even with an increase in the number of deceased-donor liver grafts in the last year. As consent to donation was obtained from the donor family the day before DDLT, fewer consents were thus obtained on Sundays.

CONCLUSION

These findings suggested that deceased-donor organ donation activities were less active on Sundays and could be improved. This further raises the concern of possible wastage of potential cases of organ donation.