Donation after cardiac death in the intensive care unit: The role of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation

Donor scarcity and the increased need for organ transplantation has prompted the development of an alternative source of donors to the more conventional brain dead donor. Non Heart Beating Donors (NHBD) or Donors after Cardiac Death (DCD) produce organs that have experienced warm ischaemia, which compromises their early function. Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation offers the possibility of minimizing this inevitable damage and extending the range of organs that can be harvested.