• J C Coelho, R S Fontan, J C Pereira, J C Wiederkehr, A C Campos, and C Zeni Neto.
• Disciplina de Cirurgia do Aparelho Digestivo, Hospital de Clínicas, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba.
• Rev Assoc Med Bras. 1994 Jan 1;40(1):36-8.

AbstractOur objective is to determine the opinions and knowledge of intensive care unit physicians toward organ donation. All physicians working in all 13 hospitals of Curitiba with intensive care unit for adults participated of the study. Of a total of 81 physicians, 75 (92.6%) answered the questionnaire. All physicians were favorable to organ donation, 74 (97.7%) were willing to donate their own organ and 72 (96%) to donate the organs of their relatives. Sixty-three (84%) did not know the present law on organ donation. Forty-one (54.7%) did not know the medical and legal criteria for organ donation. Five (6.7%) did not know that the patient had to have brain death in order to donate an organ, 3 (4%) thought that the patient had to have heart death in order to donate an organ, and 44 (58.7%) did not know how to explain brain death. Most physicians did not know the patient survival after transplantation of several organs. It is concluded that almost all intensive care unit physicians in Curitiba are favorable to organ donation and are willing to participate actively in obtaining consent of family members for donation. The basic knowledge of Brazilian law and several medical subjects on organ transplantation is unsatisfactory.

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