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Kidneys
A pair of organs that maintain proper water and electrolyte balance, regulate acid-base concentration, and filter the blood of metabolic waste, which is excreted as urine. Kidneys can be donated and transplanted. |
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Life Support
When a person has been declared brain dead, it is incorrect
to say that the person is removed from "life support." See
Ventilator
Ligaments
Strong, elastic bands of tissue that connect two bones together.
Ligaments provide strength and stability to joints.
Liver
A large reddish-brown organ that secretes bile and is active
in the formation of certain blood proteins and in the metabolism
of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. The liver can be donated
and transplanted.
Living Donor
A person who donates a kidney, part of a lung or part of a
liver, while they are still alive.
Living
Donor Kidney Exchange Program
A program in which two or more people who
are unable to donate a kidney to a relative or friend because
of biological incompatibility, are exchanged to form new pairs,
each containing a compatible donor and recipient.
Lungs
A pair of two spongy organs that remove
carbon dioxide from the blood and provide it with oxygen.
The lungs can be donated and transplanted. |
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Marginal Donor
Donors that are not considered to be "ideal." Factors may include organs from non-heart beating cadaver donors, older donors, prior infection with Hepatitis B or Hepatitis C and hypertension or diabetes mellitus.
Match
The compatibility between the donor and the recipient. The more appropriate the match, the greater the chance of a successful transplant.
MELD
The Model for End-Stage Liver Disease is a numerical scale, ranging from 6 (less ill) to 40 (gravely ill), that is used for adult liver transplant candidates. It gives each individual a ‘score' (number) based on how urgently he or she needs a liver transplant within the next three months. The number is calculated by a formula using three routine lab test results. (1) Bilirubin, which measures how effectively the liver excretes the bile; (2) INR (prothrombin time), which measures the liver's ability to make blood clotting factors; and (3) Creatinine, which measures kidney function. Impaired kidney function is often associated with severe liver disease. NOTE: A patient's score may go up or down over time depending on the status of his or her liver disease. Many patients will have their MELD score assessed a number of times while they are on the waiting list. (Source: United Network for Organ Sharing – UNOS). Also see PELD.
Multiple Listing
Being on the waiting list at more than one transplant center
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New York State Organ and Tissue Donor Registry
The New York State Organ and Tissue Donor Registry houses a
database of state residents who wish to become donors. Enrollment
in the Registry is voluntary and the Department of Health collects
only the information you provide on the enrollment form. By
enrolling in the registry, New Yorkers show their intent to
be organ and tissue donors. Click
here for more details.
Next of Kin
The person(s) most closely related to a deceased individual
as designated by applicable law such as the Uniform
Anatomical Gift Act
Non-Heart Beating Donor
See Donation After Cardiac Death
Non-living Donor
A deceased organ or tissue donor who is usually unrelated to the recipient.
NOTA
National Organ Transplantation Act, 1984 Click
here for details |
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Organ Donation After Cardiac Death
Generally, organ donation takes place after a patient has been
declared brain dead. However, during 2002, the New York Organ
Donor Network offered two families the option of Donation
After Cardiac Death. It allows the recovery of livers; kidneys
and tissues from patients who have suffered a devastating non-recoverable
illness or injury and are ventilator dependent, but do not technically
meet the criteria to be declared brain dead. This type of donation
is offered to families only after the decision has been made
to terminate the patient from life-support. The increase in
Donation After Cardiac Death mirror the findings of Swiss
researchers last summer that suggested patients who received
kidneys from donors "without a heartbeat" did just as well as
those who received an organ from a donor who was brain dead.
The study was published in The New England Journal of Medicine
(July 25, 2002).
Organ Donor
A person who wishes to donate organs and indicates so on the
back of a driver's license; through the New York State Registry
or on an organ donor card.
Organ
Placement Coordinator
This New York Organ Donor staff member is responsible for assisting
in allocating donated organs from the donor to the organ transplant
recipient. The Organ Placement Coordinator enters information
about each donor into the national computer system at UNOS
to obtain a list of potential recipients and then provides detailed
medical information about the donor to the individual transplant
centers where the patients are waiting. Once potential recipients
are identified, the coordinator arranges for the transportation
of the surgical recovery teams to the donor hospital. After
the organs have been recovered, the coordinator also makes the
necessary arrangements to transport the organs to the appropriate
receiving transplant center.
Organ Preservation
Donated organs require special methods of preservation to keep
them viable between procurement and transplantation. Without
preservation, the organ will deteriorate. The length of time
organs and tissues can be kept outside the body vary depending
on the organ, the type of preservation fluid, and the preservation
method (pump or cold storage). Common preservation times vary
from two to four hours for lungs to 48 hours for kidneys.
Organ Procurement and Transplantation
Network (OPTN)
In 1987, Congress passed the National Organ Transplant Act that
mandated the establishment of the OPTN and Scientific Registry
of Transplant Recipients. The purpose of the OPTN is to improve
the effectiveness of the nation's organ procurement, donation
and transplantation system by increasing the availability of
and access to donor organs for patients with end-stage organ
failure. Members of the OPTN include transplant centers, Organ
Procurement Organizations (OPOs), histocompatibility laboratories,
voluntary healthcare organizations and the general public. The
United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) operates the OPTN under
contract with the Federal government.
Organ Procurement Organization
(OPO)
An organization designated by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services (CMS) and responsible for the procurement of organs
and tissues for transplantation and the promotion of organ and
tissue donation. Fifty eight OPOs currently operate in the Unites
States. The New York Organ Donor Network is the organ procurement
organization serving the Greater New York metropolitan area.
OPOs employ transplant coordinators who work with donor families
and also provide educational programs to hospitals. OPOs may
be based in a hospital or be independent of any particular hospital.
Organs
Human organs available for transplantation include the heart,
liver, kidney, pancreas, intestines and lung lobes. |
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