The Public University Hospital 12 de Octubre succeeded in transplanting for the first time the heart of a person who died of cardiorespiratory arrest and who had declared that they wanted to be a donor. This type of technique, known as controlled asystole donation, was an important step in the heart transplant program at this health center in Community of Madridstarted in January 1991 and with more than 700 hearts transplanted to date.
The success of this specific procedure was possible thanks to the multidisciplinary work of the Coordination of Transplants with Cardiac Surgery and Cardiology servicesintensive care medicine, anesthesiology and resuscitation, and nursing. Donation in controlled asystole is a complex process that begins with the death of the donor by cardiorespiratory arrest. These are patients diagnosed with an irreversible or terminal illness.
In these cases and always after authorization from the patient, the immediate intervention of the team of professionals is essential to preserve the organs and prevent their deterioration after death. This is done through the use of extracorporeal circulation systems that restore blood flow, allowing the viability of the organ and its recovery to be analyzed.
The generosity of these donors and their families made it possible to removal of the liver, kidneys, lungs and soft tissues, as well as the heartwhich were implemented in a large group of patients distributed in different autonomous regions. This type of donation is strategic to increase the number of donations and transplants and improve the life prospects of patients on the waiting list waiting for an organ.
October 12 maintains active all cadaver and living adult donor programs. Concerning donations from deceased persons, This hospital includes that practiced for brain death, in asystole or cardiac arrest in patients who suffer sudden death due to cardiorespiratory arrest on public roads or following an accident and who are cared for by extra-hospital support teams, as well as this new modality of controlled asystole.
From January to September this year, 12 de Octubre Hospital received 42 real donorscompared to the 30 carried out during the same period of 2023. Likewise, it has carried out 19 lung transplants, 18 liver transplants, one pancreas transplant and 3 kidney transplants by donation in controlled asystole.
What is extracorporeal circulation?
Extracorporeal circulation (CPB) is a technique used for surgical procedures requiring open-heart or open-heart surgery. This is the case, for example, with certain types of more complicated congenital heart defects.
This procedure allows surgeons to perform complex procedures on the heart and lungs by maintaining blood flow and oxygenation while performing the operation while the heart is stopped.
Through CPB, the patient’s circulation is diverted, using cannulas and tubes, to a machine that receives blood that would reach the heart, oxygenates it, and pushes it with pressure toward the body. Extracorporeal circulation is also known as the “heart pump” or “circulation pump”, precisely because of this function that it performs, that of acting like the lungs (oxygenation) and the heart (impulse of the blood with pressure).
