2022 Volume 57 Issue 2 Pages 169-175
【Objective】 The present study involved the conduct of a simulation of lending surgical equipment for organ recovery to help optimize the provision of transplant medical care without regional disparities during the COVID-19 pandemic and reduce the burden on transplant surgeons, not only during the COVID-19 pandemic but also after the pandemic.
【Methods】 We lent out surgical equipment for organ recovery owned by Fujita Medical University for use in organ recovery in Aichi and Shizuoka Prefectures. The transportation, cleaning, sterilization, and packaging of the equipment to be rented out was outsourced to Nippon Steri Co., Ltd. After recovering the organs, each organ recovery team was asked to respond to a questionnaire.
【Results】 Surgical equipment for organ recovery was rented to 10 organ transplant teams (heart: 3, lung: 1, liver: 2, pancreas: 3, kidney: 1) in 6 cases of brain death donation. All teams participating in the simulation completed organ recovery without any problems, and organ transplantation was performed at each facility. All of the teams participating in the simulation responded positively to this simulation. As their reasoning, 60% answered that “the number of staff was reduced,” and all teams answered that “it led to a reduction in the burden.”
【Conclusions】 This simulation of surgical equipment rental for organ recovery demonstrated the potential utility of providing transplant medical care without regional disparities during the COVID-19 pandemic and reducing the burden on transplant surgeons.
