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Biomedical subjects

Sam D Shemie

Publications and source records attributed to Sam D Shemie.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

National recommendations for donation after cardiocirculatory death in Canada: Donation after cardiocirculatory death in Canada.

These recommendations are the result of a national, multidisciplinary, year-long process to discuss whether and how to proceed with organ donation after cardiocirculatory death (DCD) in Canada. A national forum was held in February 2005 to discuss and develop recommendations on the principles, procedures and practice related to DCD, including ethical and legal considerations. At the forum's conclusion, a strong majority of participants supported proceeding with DCD programs in Canada. The forum also recognized the need to formulate and emphasize core values to guide the development of programs and protocols based on the medical, ethical and legal framework established at this meeting. Although end-of-life care should routinely include the opportunity to donate organs and tissues, the duty of care toward dying patients and their families remains the dominant priority of health care teams. The complexity and profound implications of death are recognized and should be respected, along with differing personal, ethnocultural and religious perspectives on death and donation. Decisions around withdrawal of life-sustaining therapies, management of the dying process and the determination of death by cardiocirculatory criteria should be separate from and independent of donation and transplant processes. The recommendations in this report are intended to guide individual programs, regional health authorities and jurisdictions in the development of DCD protocols. Programs will develop based on local leadership and advance planning that includes education and engagement of stakeholders, mechanisms to assure safety and quality and public information. We recommend that programs begin with controlled DCD within the intensive care unit where (after a consensual decision to withdraw life-sustaining therapy) death is anticipated, but has not yet occurred, and unhurried consent discussions can be held. Uncontrolled donation (where death has occurred after unanticipated cardiac arrest) should only be considered after a controlled DCD program is well established. Although we recommend that programs commence with kidney donation, regional transplant expertise may guide the inclusion of other organs. The impact of DCD, including pre-and post-mortem interventions, on donor family experiences, organ availability, graft function and recipient survival should be carefully documented and studied.

Canada↗
PubMed2006

Potential organ donors referred to Ontario neurosurgical centres.

PURPOSE: Eleven hospitals in Ontario are adult neurosurgical centres (ONCs). Patients transferred to ONCs from community hospitals with acute intracranial emergencies often have non-survivable injuries, and may be returned to the referring hospital for end-of-life care. These referring hospitals may not be familiar with neurological determination of death, or organ donation. Our objective was to determine the number of patients with severe brain injuries assessed in ONC emergency departments where progression to brain death may be reasonably expected, and to determine their outcome. METHODS: A one-year retrospective cohort study was undertaken using a convenience sample of patients transferred to eight ONCs for neurosurgical assessment, with evidence of either (a) brain death in the emergency department, or (b) severe brain injury who met criteria of a reasonable likelihood of progression to brain death. The outcome of these patients to disposition from the ONC was determined by chart review. RESULTS: Three thousand four hundred and forty-seven patients were identified of whom 141 met inclusion criteria. Eleven patients (7.8%) were pronounced dead in the emergency department, 96 (68.1%) patients were admitted, and 34 (24.1%) were transferred back to their referring hospital. Fourteen patients (9.9%) became organ donors: two died in the emergency department and 12 died following admission. CONCLUSIONS: A significant number of patients transferred to ONCs have an injury with a likelihood of progressing to brain death, but only a small proportion of these patients become organ donors. Emergency department triage, assessment and admission decisions for patients with intracranial catastrophes should consider diagnostic criteria for brain death and recognition of donor potential as part of end-of-life care.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

Brief review: history, concept and controversies in the neurological determination of death.

PURPOSE: Despite general worldwide acceptance of the concept of neurological determination of death (NDD), inconsistencies in clinical criteria and ancillary testing requirements remain. Numerous guidelines for NDD may be applied in clinical practice by a variety of medical practitioners, but the scientific rationale for specific guideline recommendations often remains unclear. This review examines the evolution of NDD, and seeks to provide scientific validation for existing NDD criteria. SOURCE: English language peer-reviewed medical journals and established contemporary medical texts. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Currently published guidelines appear to have evolved from the work of the ad hoc Committee of the Harvard Medical School to Examine the Definition of Brain Death. The Conference of the Royal Colleges and Faculties of the United Kingdom refined the criteria and subsequently adopted the principal of brainstem death. While the fundamentals of NDD guidelines are remarkably consistent worldwide, specific criteria and requirements are often inconsistent. CONCLUSION: Numerous controversies regarding NDD continue to exist, necessitating further scientific clarification of these issues. More recently published guidelines representing the collective opinion of world experts in NDD based upon best current scientific evidence are available in current medical journals.

Brain Death↗
PubMed2006

Brief survey: determining brain death in Canadian intensive care units.

PURPOSE: Criteria for brain death were first described in 1968, and Canadian guidelines were published in 1988. However, international inconsistency persists in the process of determining brain death. We sought to determine self-reported practices and processes in the determination of brain death amongst Canadian intensive care unit (ICU) physicians. METHODS: An email survey of members of the Canadian Critical Care Society was undertaken. A survey instrument was developed, then face and content validated prior to distribution. RESULTS: Eighty eight responded (response rate = 49%), including adult and pediatric ICU physicians working in both tertiary referral (academic) and community hospitals. Most respondents admit patients with brain death to their ICUs. However, 9% reported refusing to admit this type of patient for reasons including inappropriate utilization of ICU resources (36%), and lack of either space or staff (32% and 29% of respondents, respectively). Community hospital-based ICU physicians were less likely to report a hospital policy on the determination of brain death (46% vs 78% of physicians in tertiary care hospitals). Nearly all physicians (96%) reported that a revised national standard and checklist for the determination of death would be useful. CONCLUSIONS: Nearly one quarter, and over one half of tertiary care and community hospitals (respectively) in Canada lack an institutional policy on neurological determination of brain death. Canadian ICU physicians are interested in a national standard for the determination of death, and establishment of processes that may improve the clinical determination of death by neurological criteria.

Brain Death↗
PubMed2006

Variability in hospital-based brain death guidelines in Canada.

PURPOSE: Variability has been reported in the practices to determine death by neurological criteria for adults and children. The objective of this study was to determine if this variability exists in the Canadian context. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey of the Canadian intensive care units (ICUs) involved in the care of potential organ donors, and Canadian organ procurement organizations (OPOs) was undertaken. We contacted the medical directors of these units and asked them to provide their guidelines for the neurological determination of death (NDD). A framework, which identifies key diagnostic criteria for NDD, was used to assess the content of all study documents. RESULTS: With a response rate of 68%, we found that key diagnostic criteria for NDD were incorporated inconsistently in the guidelines from Canadian ICUs and OPOs. Areas of concern include omissions in: the testing of brainstem reflexes; components of the apnea test; indications for the use of supplementary testing; wait intervals prior to performing the first NDD examination; the definition of NDD; and potential confounding factors. In addition, inconsistencies were found pertaining to wait intervals required between examinations and the legal timing of death. CONCLUSION: These findings reinforce the need to standardize the practice of the neurological determination of death in Canadian centres, which has the potential to reduce practice variation. Clear medical standards for NDD augment the quality, rigour and credibility of this determination.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Brief review: the role of ancillary tests in the neurological determination of death.

PURPOSE: The acceptance of brain death by society has allowed for the discontinuation of "life support" and the transplantation of organs. In Canada we accept the clinical criteria for brain death (essentially brain stem death) when they can be legitimately applied. Ancillary tests are needed when these clinical criteria cannot be applied or when there are confounders. Ancillary tests include tests of intracranial blood circulation, electrophysiological tests, metabolic studies and tests for residual vagus nerve function. The ideal confirmatory test is one which, when positive, would be incompatible with recoverable brain function (i.e., has no false positives), is not influenced by drugs or metabolic disturbances and which can be readily applied. A critical review of the various ancillary tests used to support the neurological determination of death (brain death) was undertaken. METHODS: A literature review based on a MEDLINE search of relevant articles published between January 1966 to January 2005 was undertaken. RESULTS: Tests of whole brain perfusion/intracranial blood circulation are the only ones that meet stated criteria. CONCLUSIONS: At present only cerebral angiography and nuclear medicine tests of perfusion are accepted by Canadian standards, but computed tomography and magnetic resonance angiography should prove to be suitable. Transcranial Doppler studies may be suitable for specific cases once appropriate guidelines are established.

Brain Chemistry↗
PubMed2006

Brief review: Practice variation in end of life care in the ICU: implications for patients with severe brain injury.

PURPOSE: To review end of life care issues in the intensive care unit (ICU) and how practice variation might affect the ultimate outcome of acute brain injury. SOURCES: Bibliographic literature search and personal files. FINDINGS: In Canada, 10-20% of critically ill adults die in the ICU. Many of these deaths follow acute brain injury in the setting of clinical deterioration, life support limitation and brain death. This brief review addresses some key elements of end of life care for critically ill brain injured patients, including family interactions, making survival predictions, and factors influencing decision-making about cardiopulmonary resuscitation and withdrawal of mechanical ventilation. CONCLUSIONS: Provision of compassionate high quality end of life care should be standard of practice for brain injured and all other critically ill patients who cannot survive. Inconsistencies in end of life care may affect where, when and how patients die, the quality of their death and whether or not they are considered for organ and tissue donation.

Brain Death↗
PubMed2006

Medical management to optimize donor organ potential: review of the literature.

PURPOSE: Over the past two decades, the demand for donor organs continues to outpace the number of organs available for transplantation. Parallel with this has been a change in the demographics of organ donors with an increase in older donors and donors with marginal organs as a proportion of the total organ donor pool. Consequently, efforts have been made to improve the medical care delivered to potential organ donors to improve the conversion rate and graft survival of available organs. The purpose of this literature review is to provide updated recommendations for the contemporary management of organ donors after the neurological determination of death in order to maximize the probability of recipient graft survival. SOURCES: A comprehensive review of the literature obtained through searches of MEDLINE/PubMed, and personal reference files. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Contemporary management of the organ donor after neurological determination of death includes therapies to prevent the detrimental effects of the autonomic storm, the use of invasive hemodynamic monitoring and aggressive respiratory therapy including therapeutic bronchoscopy in marginal heart and lung donors, and the use of hormonal therapy including vasopressin, corticosteroids, triiodothyronine or thyroxine, and insulin for the pituitary failure and inflammation seen in brain dead organ donors. The importance of normalizing donor physiology to optimize all available organs is stressed. CONCLUSION: Aggressive hemodynamic and respiratory management of solid organ donors, coupled with the use of hormonal therapy improves the rate of conversion and graft survival in solid organ recipients.

Brain Death↗
PubMed2006

Non-utilization of hearts and lungs after consent for donation: a Canadian multicentre study.

PURPOSE: To identify reasons why hearts and lungs from consented adult organ donors are not transplanted and identify changes in practice aimed at increasing their utilization rates. A greater potential may exist in Canada to improve utilization rates for hearts and lungs given their comparatively suboptimal rates (kidneys 85%, livers 84%, hearts 35% and lungs 23% reported in 2001). METHODS: Four Canadian organ procurement organizations participated. All adult organ donation cases for the calendar year 2002 were reviewed and included if consent for organ donation was obtained. An organ donation framework was established to highlight key areas where organs are lost from the transplantation stream. Organ donor cases were analyzed through this framework. RESULTS: A utilization rate of 39% (42/107) for heart and 28% (29/105) for lung donors was found, comparable to Canadian and international rates. Organ function was the most frequently cited reason for non-utilization, followed by donor characteristics and logistical issues. Suggestions for alternate management, potentially resulting in organ utilization, were made in 20 of 65 (31%) hearts and 28 of 156 (18%) lungs. Variable practices, around consent for individual organs and offering of organs consented, remained significant barriers to successful transplantation. CONCLUSION: Target areas for changes in practice included consenting and offering of all organs. Management of "marginal" organs should include resuscitation and reevaluation thus allowing potential organ rescue and utilization. Although there is considerable pressure to increase organs for transplantation, any such mechanism will not be judged successful unless recipient graft survival rates remain acceptable.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Organ utilization among deceased donors in Canada, 1993-2002.

BACKGROUND: Optimizing organ utilization from consented donors is a critical need, given a static organ donation rate. We report changes in the characteristics of donors and organ utilization patterns in Canada over a ten-year period. METHODS: For the decade spanning the years 1993-2002, data were extracted from the Canadian Organ Replacement Register (CORR), the national transplant registry. A donor was defined as a deceased person from whom at least one vital organ was retrieved and transplanted. RESULTS: The donor pool is aging (median age of donors increased eight years over the decade), with proportionately fewer donors dying from head trauma (motor vehicle collisions) and proportionately more from cerebrovascular accidents. At least four organs were utilized from approximately half the donors. These donors were significantly younger every year over the sampling period when compared with donors where < or = three organs were utilized. In 2002, utilization rates were: 87.0% (kidneys), 85.0% (livers), 42.2% (hearts), 30.6% (pancreata), 28.3% (lungs), and < or = 1% (intestines). There was increased utilization of donor pancreata, lungs and liver over the decade, but a flat utilization pattern for hearts, and a small decline in kidney utilization. Utilization rates vary from province to province. CONCLUSIONS: Trends in the Canadian organ donor pool are characterized by an increasing age and a shift towards cerebrovascular diseases as primary causes of death. In order to improve organ utilization and understand regional variability, the scope of data provided to the national registry requires enhanced detail to address the factors that lead to non-utilization. Addressing the low utilization rates for hearts and lungs is especially critical, given the need for thoracic transplantation in Canada.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Posttraumatic pseudoaneurysm of the intracavernous internal carotid artery presenting with massive epistaxis.

OBJECTIVES: To report a case of posttraumatic pseudoaneurysm of the intracavernous internal carotid artery presenting with massive epistaxis and to discuss its pathophysiology and management. DESIGN: Case report and literature review. SETTING: Pediatric intensive care unit in a tertiary-care center. PATIENTS AND RESULTS: Twelve days after a motor vehicle accident causing a head injury and facial fractures, this patient presented with massive epistaxis due to a pseudoaneurysm of the intracavernous internal carotid artery . Nasal packing was performed and subsequent angiography demonstrated the vascular lesion that had dissected into the sphenoid sinus. Endovascular stent and coil occlusion of the vascular lesion was performed, and the patient's condition improved without any ischemic or thromboembolic sequelae. CONCLUSION: Posttraumatic aneurysms of the intracavernous internal carotid artery can be associated with delayed and sometimes lethal massive epistaxis. This vascular lesion should be considered in patients with traumatic brain injury presenting with basal skull fractures in the region of the carotid canal or cavernous sinus and/or orbital fractures and compromise of the optical nerves. Knowledge of these risk factors and early diagnosis can minimize the high mortality risk.

Accidents, Traffic↗