Inhalational anesthesia for organ procurement: potential indications for administering inhalational anesthesia in the brain-dead organ donor

Organs needed for transplantation far outweigh their availability. There is minimal research regarding perioperative care of the brain-dead organ donor during the procurement procedure. Current research attributes a great deal of organ damage to autonomic or sympathetic storm that occurs during brain death. Literature searches were performed with the terms brain death, organ donor, organ procurement, anesthesia and organ donor, anesthesia and brain death, anesthesia and organ procurement, inhalational anesthetics and organ procurement, and inhalational anesthetics and brain dead. Additional resources were obtained from reference lists of published articles. The literature review showed there is a lack of published studies researching the use of inhalational anesthetics in organ procurement. No studies have been published evaluating the effect of preconditioning with inhalational agents (administering 1.3 minimal alveolar concentration of an inhalational agent for the 20 minutes before periods of ischemia) in the brain-dead organ donor population. Further studies are required to determine if administration of inhalational anesthetics reduces catecholamine release occurring with surgical stimulation during the organ procurement procedure and whether this technique increases viability of transplanted organs. Anesthetic preconditioning before the ischemic period may reduce ischemia-reperfusion injury in transplanted organs, further increasing viability of transplanted organs.