• Patrick B Trotter, Matthew Robb, William Hulme, Dominic M Summers, Christopher J E Watson, J Andrew Bradley, and James Neuberger.
• National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre and the NIHR Blood and Transplant Research Unit (BTRU), University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
• Transpl Infect Dis. 2016 Dec 1; 18 (6): 862-871.

BackgroundDeceased organ donors, where the cause of death is meningitis or encephalitis, are a potential concern because of the risks of transmission of a potentially fatal infection to recipients.MethodsUsing the UK Transplant Registry, a retrospective cohort analysis of deceased organ donors in the UK was undertaken to better understand the extent to which organs from deceased donors with meningitis and/or encephalitis (M/E) (of both known and unknown cause) have been used for transplantation, and to determine the associated recipient outcomes.ResultsBetween 2003 and 2015, 258 deceased donors with M/E were identified and the causative agent was known in 188 (72.9%). These donors provided 899 solid organs for transplantation (455 kidneys and 444 other organs). The only recorded case of disease transmission was from a donor with encephalitis of unknown cause at time of transplantation who transmitted a fatal nematode infection to 2 kidney transplant recipients. A further 3 patients (2 liver and 1 heart recipient) died within 30 days of transplantation from a neurological cause (cerebrovascular accident) with no suggestion of disease transmission. Overall, patient and graft survival in recipients of organs from donors with M/E were similar to those for all other types of deceased organ donor.ConclusionDonors dying with M/E represent a valuable source of organs for transplantation. The risk of disease transmission is low but, where the causative agent is unknown, caution is required.© 2016 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

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