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A challenge for solid organ transplantation in Germany is the shortage of organs. In an effort to increase donation rates, some federal states mandated hospitals to install transplantation officers to coordinate, evaluate, and enhance the donation and transplantation processes. In 2009 the German Foundation for Organ Transplantation (DSO) implemented the In-House Coordination Project, which includes retrospective, quarterly, information technology-based case analyses of all deceased patients with primary or secondary brain injury in regard to the organ donation process in maximum care hospitals. From 2006 to 2008 an analysis of potential organ donors was performed in our hospital using a time-consuming, complex method using questionnaires, hand-written patient files, and the hospital IT documentation system (standard method). Analyses in the In-House Coordination Project are instead carried out by a proprietary semiautomated IT tool called Transplant Check, which uses easily accessible standard data records of the hospital controlling and accounting unit. The aim of our study was to compare the results of the standard method and Transplant Check in detecting and evaluating potential donors. To do so, the same period of time (2006 to 2008) was re-evaluated using the IT tool. Transplant Check was able to record significantly more patients who fulfilled the criteria for inclusion than the standard method (641 vs 424). The methods displayed a wide overlap, apart from 22 patients who were only recorded by the standard method. In these cases, the accompanying brain injury diagnosis was not recorded in the controlling and accounting unit data records due to little relative clinical significance. None of the 22 patients fulfilled the criteria for brain death. In summary, Transplant Check is an easy-to-use, reliable, and valid tool for evaluating donor potential in a maximum care hospital. Therefore from 2010 on, analyses were performed exclusively with Transplant Check at our university hospital., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: A chronic shortage of organs for transplantation has developed due to the disparity between the demand for solid organs and the current supply. Improved processes for identifying potential donors could expand the pool of available organs., Patients and Methods: All patients who died between January 1, 2006 and December 31, 2008 in the University hospital of Essen suffering from a primary or secondary cerebral injury were assessed retrospectively. Age, date of death, duration of stay in the intensive care unit, main and additional diagnoses and diagnostic test for assessing brain death as well as discussions with relatives were recorded anonymously., Results: 424 deaths with primary or secondary cerebral injury (group A) were identified during the study period. 267 deaths (62.9 %) (group B) were further evaluated for organ donation after excluding absolute medical contraindications, e. g. malignancies, multiple organ failure. In 68 cases (16.0 %), diagnostic test of brain death had been completed (group C). Despite a high refusal rate, 36 (8.5 %) organ procurements were realized (group D) resulting in 140 transplanted organs (3.9 per organ donor)., Conclusion: The first crucial step to improve the rate of organ donation is to identify any potential donor. In 8.5 % of intensive care unit deaths with primary or secondary cerebral damage, organ procurement was realized. In addition, education regarding transplant medicine and a positive attitude to organ donation among the general public as well as medical personnel is necessary to minimize the high refusal rates., (© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.)