Canadian Guidelines for Controlled Pediatric Donation After Circulatory Determination of Death-Summary Report

OBJECTIVES: Create trustworthy, rigorous, national clinical practice guidelines for the practice of pediatric donation after circulatory determination of death in Canada. METHODS: We followed a process of clinical practice guideline development based on World Health Organization and Canadian Medical Association methods. This included application of Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation methodology. Questions requiring recommendations were generated based on 1) 2006 Canadian donation after circulatory determination of death guidelines (not pediatric specific), 2) a multidisciplinary symposium of national and international pediatric donation after circulatory determination of death leaders, and 3) a scoping review of the pediatric donation after circulatory determination of death literature. Input from these sources drove drafting of actionable questions and Good Practice Statements, as defined by the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation group. We performed additional literature reviews for all actionable questions. Evidence was assessed for quality using Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation and then formulated into evidence profiles that informed recommendations through the evidence-to-decision framework. Recommendations were revised through consensus among members of seven topic-specific working groups and finalized during meetings of working group leads and the planning committee. External review was provided by pediatric, critical care, and critical care nursing professional societies and patient partners. RESULTS: We generated 63 Good Practice Statements and seven Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation recommendations covering 1) ethics, consent, and withdrawal of life-sustaining therapy, 2) eligibility, 3) withdrawal of life-sustaining therapy practices, 4) ante and postmortem interventions, 5) death determination, 6) neonatal pediatric donation after circulatory determination of death, 7) cardiac and innovative pediatric donation after circulatory determination of death, and 8) implementation. For brevity, 48 Good Practice Statement and truncated justification are included in this summary report. The remaining recommendations, detailed methodology, full Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation tables, and expanded justifications are available in the full text report. CONCLUSIONS: This process showed that rigorous, transparent clinical practice guideline development is possible in the domain of pediatric deceased donation. Application of these recommendations will increase access to pediatric donation after circulatory determination of death across Canada and may serve as a model for future clinical practice guideline development in deceased donation

A systematic review of autoresuscitation after cardiac arrest.

OBJECTIVE: There is a lack of consensus on how long circulation must cease for death to be determined after cardiac arrest. The lack of scientific evidence concerning autoresuscitation influences the practice of organ donation after cardiac death. We conducted a systematic review to summarize the evidence on the timing of autoresuscitation. DATA SOURCES: Electronic databases were searched from date of first issue of each journal until July 2008. STUDY SELECTION: Any original study reporting autoresuscitation, as defined by the unassisted return of spontaneous circulation after cardiac arrest, was considered eligible. Reports of electrocardiogram activity without signs of return of circulation were excluded. DATA EXTRACTION: For each study case, we extracted patient characteristics, duration of cardiopulmonary resuscitation, terminal heart rhythms, time to unassisted return of spontaneous circulation, monitoring, and outcomes. DATA SYNTHESIS: A total of 1265 citations were identified and, of these, 27 articles describing 32 cases of autoresuscitation were included (n = 32; age, 27-94 yrs). The studies came from 16 different countries and were considered of very-low quality (case reports or letters to the editor). All 32 cases reported autoresuscitation after failed cardiopulmonary resuscitation, with times ranging from a few seconds to 33 mins; however, continuity of observation and methods of monitoring were highly inconsistent. For the eight studies reporting continuous electrocardiogram monitoring and exact times, autoresuscitation did not occur beyond 7 mins after failed cardiopulmonary resuscitation. No cases of autoresuscitation in the absence of cardiopulmonary resuscitation were reported. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that the provision of cardiopulmonary resuscitation may influence autoresuscitation. In the absence of cardiopulmonary resuscitation, as may apply to controlled organ donation after cardiac death after withdrawal of life-sustaining therapies, autoresuscitation has not been reported. The provision of cardiopulmonary resuscitation, as may apply to uncontrolled organ donation after cardiac death, may influence observation time. However, existing evidence is limited and is consequently insufficient to support or refute the recommended waiting period to determine death after a cardiac arrest, strongly supporting the need for prospective studies in dying patients.