Currently, Vietnam's legal documents have provisions guiding the diagnosis of brain death and the donation of tissues and organs from brain-dead people. The 2006 Law on Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplantation also mentions the donation of tissues and organs from brain-dead people but does not mention the donation of tissues and organs from heart-dead people.
On February 29, the National Organ Transplant Coordination Center held a workshop on "Organ and tissue donation from cardiac dead people in Vietnam" to seek opinions from scientists and experts to propose adding cardiac dead people and organ and tissue donation from cardiac dead people to the upcoming revised Law on Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplantation.
At the workshop, Associate Professor, Dr. Dong Van He, Director of the National Organ Transplant Coordination Center, Deputy Director of Viet Duc Friendship Hospital, said that the world is taking advantage of two sources of donated organs: heart death and brain death for organ transplants for patients. Currently, in Vietnam's legal documents, there are regulations guiding the diagnosis of brain death and donation of tissues and organs from brain-dead people. The 2006 Law on Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplantation only mentions donation of tissues and organs from brain-dead people and does not mention donation of tissues and organs from heart-dead people. Meanwhile, over the past 10 years, the source of organ donation from heart-dead people has been of interest to many countries and has increased. Moreover, the source of organ donation from heart-dead people in Vietnam is very large.
Sharing international experience, Associate Professor, Dr. Dong Van He said that in China, organ donation from people with cardiac death accounts for a higher rate than brain death because currently organ donation from people with brain death is still controversial and the donor's family only agrees to donate when the heart has stopped beating.
“If multiple organ donation from people with cardiac death is accepted by law, it will expand the source of donated organs, helping patients with tissue and organ failure have more hope of overcoming serious illnesses and increase the rate of tissue and organ donation after brain death and cardiac death nationwide in the coming time,” Associate Professor, Dr. Dong Van He commented, adding that after a few hours of cardiac death, experts can still resuscitate and retrieve lungs, kidneys, liver, pancreas, cornea, skin, bones, and blood vessels, so the source of donated organs is equivalent to that of brain-dead people.
Further clarification, Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Quang Nghia, Director of the Organ Transplant Center, Viet Duc Hospital, said that recently, there were about 200 cases of brain death being resuscitated to prepare for brain death assessment for organ donation at Viet Duc Hospital, but they suffered from circulatory failure, circulatory arrest, and heart failure. In this case, although the family agreed to donate organs, the patient could not be assessed for brain death and could not donate organs, so it was a waste of donated organs.
Therefore, it is necessary to have criteria to predict the risk of circulatory arrest in order to switch from brain death diagnosis to circulatory death or cardiac death diagnosis. From there, it is necessary to have a plan to organize organ retrieval from circulatory death donors.
MINH KHANG
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