[To facilitate organ donation in Ile-de-France].

In May and June 1988, the INSERM and the Section Centre Ile-de-France Transplant conducted a survey of the number of subjects in a state of cerebral death available in Ile-de-France, in order to determine the transplantation capacity of that region. The results obtained showed that there were 70 cerebral deaths per million inhabitants and per year in Ile-de-France. Organs were obtained from 28 subjects with cerebral death per million inhabitants and per year (39 per cent). The two significant factors which facilitated organ procurement were the donor's age (between 15 and 55 years) and the "centre effect", the latter term meaning that organ procurement and multiple organ harvesting were more frequent when the subjects had been admitted to one of the 6 organ procurement national hospitals centres. The law regulating organ procurements was not an obstacle. The 3 main causes of non-procurement were the application of questionable medical contra-indications, the reluctance to obtain organ from children and the inadequate organization of procurement and transplantation teams. It is were proposed that organs should be obtained from all subjects in a state of cerebral death, if contra-indications were discussed with procurement teams for each of these subjects and if the procurement teams were better organized, there would be a significant increase in the number of procurements and in the capacity for transplantation in Ile-de-France.