Indian Transplant Newsletter Vol. V Issue NO.14. Feb-Jun 2003
Print ISSN 0972 - 1568

Cadaver Organ donation and Transplantation in India

Indian Transplant Newsletter.
Vol. V Issue NO.14. Feb-Jun 2003
Print ISSN 0972 - 1568
Print PDF


The transplantation of human organs (THO) Act, 1994, kick-started the cadaver transplantation programme in India with its acceptances of brain death as a definition of death. The cadaver transplantation activity in India from January 1995 to June 2000 was kidney 379, heart 34, liver 12, pancreas 2 and lungs 1, adding up to a total of 428 transplants. Chennai has done the largest number of cadaver transplants in the country(n=189)followed by New Delhi(n=68), Ahmadabad(n=46), Bangalore(n=32), Vellore(n=22),Mumbai(n=20),and Coimbatore  (n=12).one of major prerequisites for  a successful cadaver transplant programme is obviously a positive attitude of the Indian public onwards organ donation .A public survey was conducted in 195 and 1996 to gauge the attitude of Indian public towards organ donation .5008 people were part of the survey .The survey  showed that 72% of the population was willing to donate eyes and carry a donor card. However the concept of brain death was new to most of the people surveyed and less than 50% of them were willing to consider solid organ donation; A protocol called the” Ramachandra Protocol” evolved based on the result of this survey. Since the majority of the people had positive attitude towards eye donation, it was suggested that, in a brain death situation, eyes should be requested first. Depending upon the family's response, other organs could be requested for or not. While all 35 hospitals doing cadaver transplants in India have adequate intensive care facilities and fully qualified medical and paramedical staff, a need is being felt for motivated medical social workers trained to speak to families confronted with brain death situations. At any given time, there are 8-10 brain dead patients in different ICUs in any major city of the country. There is hence a large pool of potential organ donors waiting to be tapped especially as early results of the first 100 transplants have been acceptable. One-year allograft and patient survival was 82% and 86% and two-year allograft and patient survival was 74% and 80% respectivwely. Over the last 2 years, local state-based organ-sharing networks have been established by non-profit, non-governmental organizations; one of these networks is the Initiative for Organ Sharing group started by the Multi Organ Harvesting Aid Network (MOHAN) Foundation in Chennai. The group has had an encouranging start sharing 68 organs amongst five hospitals in the last two years. The group hopes to collaborate with like-minded organizations, such as the Foundation for Organ Transplantation and Education (FORTE) in Bangalore adn Zonal Transplant Coordinating Committee (ZTCC) in Mumbai.    

While the cadaver transplant programme has got off to a start, albeit a slow one, there is clause in the THO act which is slowing it down further. Act while defining the first relative who could donate organs also made a provision for live-unrelated donation by including a clause that said a person for reasons of “affection or attachment” could donate his organs to a person who was not a first relative; of course, the case was to be whetted thoroughly by a government authorization committee to make sure there was no monetary angle to the donation. Unfortunately this loophole has been difficult to plug and so live organ donation with money exchanging hands goes on. Therefore, this clause either has to be scrapped or tightened to help push the cadaver transplant programme forward.

Transplantation Proceedings, 35,15-17 (2003)

 


To cite : Shroff S, Navin S. Cadaver Organ donation and Transplantation in India. Indian Transplant Newsletter Vol. V Issue NO.14. Feb-Jun 2003.
Available at:
https://www.itnnews.co.in/indian-transplant-newsletter/issue14/CADAVER-ORGAN-DONATION-AND-TRANSPLANTATION-IN-INDIA-235.htm

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