Addition of direct peritoneal lavage to human cadaver organ donor resuscitation improves organ procurement.

BACKGROUND

Brain dead organ donors have altered central hemodynamic performance, impaired hormone physiology, exaggerated systemic inflammatory response, end-organ microcirculatory dysfunction, and tissue hypoxia. A new treatment, direct peritoneal resuscitation (DPR), stabilizes vital organ blood flow after conventionally resuscitated shock to improve these derangements.

STUDY DESIGN

A prospective case-control study of adjunctive DPR compared 26 experimental patients (brain dead organ donors) to 52 controls (protocolized conventionally resuscitated donors). Actual organ procurement rates were compared with the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipient predicted organ yield per patient. Achievement of donor management goals and effective hepatic blood flow were recorded.

RESULTS

Fourteen of 26 (53.8%) patients treated with DPR achieved all donor management goals compared with 17 of 52 (32.7%) patients treated with conventionally resuscitated (odds ratio = 2.4; 95% CI, 0.92-6.3; p = 0.06). Patients treated with DPR were more than 2 times as likely to achieve final pO2 >100 on 40% FiO2 compared with controls (odds ratio = 2.8; 95% CI, 1-7.69; p = 0.03). Also, DPR-treated patients required less IV crystalloid during the first 12 hours of management (DPR: 3,167 ± 1,893 mL vs 4,154 ± 2,100 mL; p = 0.046) and required less vasopressor agents at 12 hours post resuscitation (odds ratio = 7.7; 95% CI, 0.82-42; p = 0.02). Direct peritoneal resuscitation patients had enhanced effective hepatic blood flow and significantly higher organs transplanted per donor rates compared with controls (3.7 ± 1.7 vs 3.1 ± 1.3; p = 0.024).

CONCLUSIONS

Direct peritoneal resuscitation reduced IV fluid requirement and IV pressor use as well as increased hepatic blood flow and organs transplanted per donor. Direct peritoneal resuscitation studies show it to be a safe, effective method to augment organ donor resuscitation and additional large-scale trials should be conducted to validate these findings.