Canadian Clinical Guide to Organ Donation
1. Course Overview
2. Identification and Referral
3. Neurological Determination of Death
- Understand the pathophysiology that results in death by neurological criteria.
- Recognize proximate causes for death by neurological criteria.
- Understand that a physician must work in accordance with national standards to identify an irreversible proximate cause for death.
- Recognize the differences in procedure between Neonates, Infants and Children, Adolescents and Adults.
- Understand the support offered by your regional organ donation experts and the benefits they may provide when consulting on potential organ donors contacting a donation support physician.
- Recognize various conditions capable of mimicking neurological death.
- Recognize the baseline temperature required for NDD.
- Identify situations in which confounding factors cannot be corrected and it is necessary to proceed to ancillary.
- Assess for deep unresponsive coma.
- Assess for the absence of brainstem reflexes.
- Perform the apnea test and correctly interpret arterial blood gas results to be compatible with neurological death.
- Recognize situations that make interpretation of the apnea test very difficult.
- Recognize some clinical situations may render the neurological examination uninterpretable.
- Understand the physiology and clinical significance of some uncommon exam findings in a neurologically dead patient.
- Identify situations where your local donation expert may provide resources and assistance in the neurological determination of death.
- Assess for deep unresponsive coma and brainstem reflexes in NDD in the presence of an irreversible etiology.
- Recognize the steps of vestibular ocular (cold caloric).
4. Management of a Neurological Donor
5. Donation after Circulatory Death
6. Patient and Family-Centred Care of Critically Ill Patients Who Are Potential Organ Donors
7. Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD)
