Impact of COVID-19 on brain death and organ donation; a single center study in Turkey

Objectives: More than 50 million people in the world have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and more than 1 million 250 thousand patients have died. With the increasing number of COVID-19 patients admitted to hospitals, problems related to non-COVID-19 patient care have emerged. Organ transplant organizations have had to adapt to this difficult time. The current and long-term impact due to the COVID-19 pandemic is an important factor to be taken into account. An important question to ask is how this outbreak has changed the organ donation process and how long it will take to address a potentially growing waiting list. Methods: We analized the effects of the pandemic COVID-19 in 2020 inTurkey between March and May. We have counted the number of brain deaths and organ donations in these months. We retrospectively compared the same months in 2019, the months before and after the pandemic in 2020, and the years 2019-2020. Results: When examined in other months, it is seen that the effect of the pandemic on brain death and organ donation continues not only in the months when the pandemic is intense, but also in other months. The total number of brain deaths in 2019 was 37, and family donations were 22; In 2020, the number of brain deaths decreased to 13, and family donations decreased to 7. This corresponds to a decrease of 64.86% and 68.18%, respectively, compared to the previous year. Conclusions: Brain death, organ donation and organ transplantation have decreased significantly with the onset of the pandemic compared to the previous years and the prepandemic period. Studies from different countries and regions have also shown that this decrease becomes even more pronounced where the number of cases is high.Y