Elsevier

Transplantation Proceedings

Volume 51, Issue 7, September 2019, Pages 2163-2166
Transplantation Proceedings

First International Transplant Network Congress
Organ Donation
Knowledge and Attitude Toward Brain Death and Organ Donation Among Anesthesiology and Reanimation Professionals

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.transproceed.2019.01.168Get rights and content

Abstract

Purpose

We aimed to establish the basic data for the improvement of the weak points by determining the knowledge and attitude of professionals in anesthesiology and reanimation or/and intensive care, who are 50% responsible for the diagnosis of brain death.

Methods

After the approval of the ethics committee, questionnaires were sent to participants. The data were collected electronically. The questionnaire consists of 89 questions.

Results

A total of 564 (22.56%) completed questionnaires were returned. The sex distribution of the respondents was 207 (36.7%) female and 357 (63.3%) male; the mean age was 37 (SD, 7) years. Among participants, 87.2% reported needing ancillary testing for the diagnosis of brain death. Nevertheless, the rate of those who never needed ancillary testing was high among the participants who were specialized and working in hospitals covered by Erzurum RCC (31.2% and 26.7%, respectively) (P < .05). A total of 55.3% of respondents reported considering brain death and 41.9% reported considering circulatory arrest at the time of death. Participants’ religious beliefs are not against to organ donation (93.4%). However, the percentage of respondents who thought that families refuse organ donation because of their religion was 84.1%. Suggestions for increasing organ transplants from deceased donors include education (54.1%), religious support (21.4%), use of media resources (25%), government support and legislative changes (10.1% and 7.6%, respectively), and education of health workers (9.4%).

Conclusion

The most important way to solve this problem is to give adequate education to main stakeholders. This is the most effective method to improve the public’s behavior.

Section snippets

Methods

After receiving approval from the Ethics Committee, the required approval was obtained from the Board of Turkish Anesthesiology and Reanimation Society, which has approximately 2500 members, and questionnaires were sent to the members periodically over the Internet from December 8, 2014, to January 24, 2017. The data were collected electronically. In addition, in the form of a printed questionnaire distributed at the meetings (eg, symposium, national congress, seminar, course), the lecturers

Results

A total of 564 (22.56%) completed questionnaires were returned. The sex distribution of the respondents was 207 (36.7%) female and 357 (63.3%) male; the mean age was 37 ± 7 years.

It can be said that the participants have knowledge about the current legislation on brain death and organ transplantation, and an average of 70% (range, 37.8%–94.1%) have a positive attitude toward it. The questions about the neurologic examination interval for adults and children who are younger than 2 months and

Discussion

Each year 2000 people are diagnosed as brain dead in our country. Intensive care unit professionals try to tell their relatives that although their loved ones breathe with a device and the support of drugs, they are dead despite their heart beating [10]. As 25% of people diagnosed as brain dead can be donors, in this questionnaire study we attempted to determine information, tendency, and attitude about brain death and organ transplantation among anesthesiology and reanimation professionals,

Conclusion

Organ shortage is a universal problem encountered because of imbalance between supply of and demand for organs. Despite the potential for donation with 2000 brain deaths per year in the country, low rates of family permission stand against it.

The most important way to solve this problem is to provide adequate education to main stakeholders. This is the most effective method to improve the public’s behavior.

Theoretical training about brain death and organ donation is beneficial when performed

References (21)

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Cited by (3)

  • Attitudes Toward and Knowledge of Brain Death and Deceased Organ Donation Among Anesthesiologists in the Northeastern Region of Poland

    2022, Transplantation Proceedings
    Citation Excerpt :

    Only 74% of them said that they trust clinical death diagnostics, which is a considerably lower number than doctors agreeing with brain death criteria including ancillary testing in our study (95%) [5]. The studies conducted in Qatar [6] and Turkey [7] showed a positive outlook toward organ transplant among intensive care physicians, although slightly lower than in our region (89% and 93.2%, respectively). At the same time, in the Qatar survey only 46.8% respondents said they believed in brain death.

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