Aplicación de cardiocompresores mecánicos en el donante tras una muerte cardiaca extrahospitalaria

Objective: The SUMMA 112 emergency health service of Madrid is working with area hospitals on a program to facilitate organ donation from persons who have suffered cardiac death outside the hospital and who have not responded to resuscitation maneuvers. The aim of this study was to assess the usefulness of mechanical cardiopumps. Methods: Retrospective, descriptive study based on SUMMA 112 data available for organ donors after cardiac death. The data analyzed were from 2008, before cardiopumps, and 2009, the year when cardiopumps became widely used. Two models were available; one was the LUCAS pump, from Physio-Control, and the other was the Autopulse, from Zoll. Independent variables studied were age, sex, cardiopump use and model, time from arrival at the emergency site until notification of arrival at the hospital. Dependent variables were categorization as a valid donor, number of organs donated, and types of organs donated. We compared the mean number of organs donated in 2008 (period without mechanical cardiopumps) to the number donated in 2009 (with cardiopumps). Results: A total of 108 cases were on record. Eighty-seven percent of the patients were men. The median (interquartile range) age was 40 (35-49.75) years. Overall, 82 cadavers were valid donors and a mean of 3.18 organs per donor were obtained. In the period without cardiopumps, the mean number of organs obtained was 3.4; with cardiopumps the mean was 2.9 organs (P