Abstract
【Objective】 In Japan, the working conditions of transplant surgeons involved in organ procurement have not been surveyed so far. This survey by the Workstyle Reform Committee of the Japanese Society for Transplantation was conducted between December 2020 and February 2021 to analyze the working conditions of surgeons involved in organ procurement from brain-dead donors and donors after cardiac arrest (hereinafter, cardiac-arrest donors).
【Methods】 Although organ transplantation after cardiac arrest is limited to kidney transplantation in Japan, a questionnaire similar to that used in the survey of the working conditions of surgeons involved in organ procurement from brain-dead donors was distributed to examine the differences in the working conditions, etc., between surgeons involved in organ procurement from brain-dead donors and cardiac-arrest donors. The target population for this survey conducted by the Workstyle Reform Committee of the Japanese Society for Transplantation between December 1, 2020 and February 28, 2021, were 340 members of the Japanese Society for Transplantation (surgeons).
【Results】 The time spent in management for organ procurement was as expected: in organ procurement from brain-dead donors, processes were often performed according to the predetermined schedule and the management was completed within a relatively short period of time (within 3 hours). On the other hand, in the case of organ procurement from cardiac-arrest donors, in which organ procurement was initiated after declaration of the end of life, various situations were encountered, and the management period prior to organ procurement sometimes was as long as 2 full days to 3 days or more. The large majority of all respondents performed organ procurement surgery following the sequence of management prior to organ procurement. This was common to both organ procurement from brain-dead donors and organ procurement from cardiac-arrest donors. The survey participants were asked about the interval between completion of organ procurement and the start of transplantation surgery or other tasks, and the responses revealed that approximately 80% of the surgeons continued to work, performing the transplant surgery or other tasks, following organ procurement, without taking any rest. The time spent in organ procurement was 12 to 24 hours, including travel time, in both organ procurement from brain-dead donors and organ procurement from cardiac-arrest donors, except that in some cases of organ procurement from cardiac-arrest donors, 2 to 3 days were required for the organ procurement, because the time to cardiac arrest was unexpectedly long.
【Conclusion】 The results of this questionnaire survey reveal that transplant surgeons, who are few in number at present, are forced to start working very early after obtaining information on organ donation and continue to work for extended periods of time without rest.
