How to improve the quality of kidneys from non-heart-beating donors a randomised controlled trial of thrombolysis in non–heart-beating donors

The growth in the prevalence of end-stage renal failure has been accompanied with a rise in the waiting list for renal transplantation, which has not been matched by an increase in the kidney donor pool. Non–heart-beating donors (NHBD) offer a potential source of kidneys that are not currently being significantly used. Cardiac arrest for a protracted period of time leads to in situ thrombosis, and, as a consequence, the discard rates for harvested kidneys is higher than brain–stem-dead donors.