• Aleksandar Gopcević, Marinko Vucić, Arijana Lovrencić-Huzjan, Vlasta Vuković, Mirela Busić, Vesna Vargek-Solter, Sasa Schmidt, Natasa Kovacić, Kresimir Rotim, and Vida Demarin.
• Department of Anesthesiology, Reference Center for Neurovascular Disorders, Ministry of Health and Social Welfare of Republic of Croatia, Sestre milosrdnice University Hospital, Zagreb, Croatia.
• Acta Clin Croat. 2009 Sep 1; 48 (3): 319-24.

AbstractThe rate of organ donation reflects the level of the respective society and country development. In Croatia, attempts have been made to increase this rate. As a consequence, the number of potential donors with confirmed brain death was observed to have steadily increased during the 2004-2008 period. Data on all potential donors where the confirmation procedure for brain death was completed were retrieved and analyzed. The percentage of donors out of all persons diagnosed with brain death and all deaths recorded at the Central Intensive Care Unit and at all Hospital departments was calculated. The mean number or organs per donor was also calculated. During the 2004-2008 period, the number of donors perbrain death persons was 5/unknown, 6/10, 8/13, 11/13 and 18/20; mean age 51, 50, 39, 48 and 44; donor rate per Central Intensive Care Unit deaths 5.9%, 5.6%, 5.8%, 10.4% and 12.1%; donor rate per all hospital deaths 0.4%, 0.5%, 0.5%, 1.5% and 1.9%; and number of organs per donor 1.6, 2.4, 2.6, 3.0 and 2.7, respectively. Study results showed a steady increase in the number of donors and organs per donor at Sestre milosrdnice University Hospital during the 2004-2008 period. More intensive education should be organized at medical schools and for medical professionals to identify brain death persons and potential donors. In addition, mass media campaigns should improve public awareness and perception of the issue.

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