Introduction: cold ischemia time (CIT) is one of the significant parameters in determining the quality of utilized deceased organs. In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), the Saudi Center for Organ Transplantation (SCOT) utilizes methods in minimizing the CIT of recovered organs from deceased donors (DD) through governmental support such as the military air medical evacuation (medevac), ambulances and donors shifted to donor hospitals, thus, shortening the CIT of recovered organs.
Methods: a 2 year retrospective study was done during the years 2015 to 2016 showing the impact of available logistics in KSA among recovered deceased organs.
Results: during the years 2015 to 2016, there were a total of 1275 possible deceased heart beating donors and 810 (63.5%) were documented as dead by brain function criteria; 665 of these donors were approached for organ donation and 203 (30.5%) consented for organ donation; 181 (89.1%) were recovered, yielding 605 organs recovered and 553 transplanted (91.4%). The mean CIT for organs are as follows: 12 hrs. for kidneys (< 12 hrs. 144 (54.5%), ≥ 12-24 hrs. 105 (39.8%), > 24-36 hrs. 15 (5.7%) and none for 37-48 hrs.), 6 hrs. for liver, 3 hrs. for heart, 5 hrs. 30 mins. for lung and 6 hrs. 29 minutes for pancreas. In relation to logistics, out of the total 181 recovered cases; there were a total of 88 (48.6%) medevac transport used, 58 (32%) ambulance transfers and 35 (19.3%) cases wherein the donor is in a transplant center.
Conclusion: there is a significant impact of logistics on the cold ischemia time among utilized deceased donors, minimizing its numbers due to the support from government services, such as the medical evacuation used across the kingdom, as well as ambulances used in transporting the recovery teams to donor hospital and transplant centers in a very optimal time frame.