Impacts of COVID-19 Pandemic on Organ donation and transplantation activities in Iran

Marzieh Latifi, Farzaneh Bagherpour, Arefeh Jafarian, Amirali Hamidiye, Ehsan Javandoost, Zeinab Mansouri, Maryam Pourhosien, Niloufar Tirgar, Mohammad Amir Amirkhani and Sanaz Dehghani*

Abstract

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had a great impact on reducing organ transplantation activities.

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the donation and transplantation activities before and after COVID-19 outbreak in Iran.

Methods: This retrospective study compared the donation and transplantation activities in two specific 9-month periods (average period of March - December 2019 Vs. March - December 2020). The questionnaire included the numbers of brain death confirmations, family consents, organ recoveries, and transplanted solid organs. The questionnaire was sent by email to the chief executive of the organ procurement unit.

Results: A total of 15 organ procurement units responded to the survey. The largest reduction was seen in tissue transplantation (62.5%) during two time intervals. Brain death due to head trauma significantly decreased in two time intervals and suicide increased by 14.44% during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to 2018-2019 period. Significant reduction between the median of doantion ( P = .0187), median of potential donor (P = 0.005), median of family consent (P = .002), and median of eligible donor (P = .009) were observed during the two time periods.

Conclusion: A significant reduction was observed in organ donation and transplantation during COVID-19 pandemic. Developing protocols and establishing newstrategies for evaluation of organ donation to ensure the safety of organ recipients and medical staff is necessary.

Keywords: COVID- 19, Brain death, Deceased Donor, Transplantation.