Introduction To counter the shortage of kidney grafts in France, a non heart beating donor (NHBD) program has recently been implemented. The aim of this study was to describe this pilot program for kidney retrieval from "uncontrolled" NHBD meaning those for whom attempts of resuscitation after a witnessed outof-hospital cardiac arrest (CA) have failed (Maastricht 1 and 2), in a centre previously trained for retrieval from brain dead donors.

Background. The French uncontrolled donors after circulatory death (DCD) protocol restricts donor age to <55 years, no-flow time to <30 minutes, and functional warm ischemia time to <150 minutes. In situ kidney perfusion can be performed at either 4°C (in situ cooling [ISC]) or 33–36°C (normothermic regional perfusion [NRP]). Hypothermic machine perfusion is systematically used. Only nonimmunized first transplant recipients were eligible. To improve the management of uncontrolled DCD, we tried to identify factors predictive of outcome. Methods. We identified all kidney transplants from uncontrolled DCD between 2007 and 2014 from the French Transplant Registry. Risk factors for primary nonfunction (PNF; n = 37) and poor renal function (estimated glomerular filtration rate < 30 mL/min or graft loss at 1 y, n = 66) were analyzed by using a multivariate logistic model. Results. This study analyzed 499 kidney transplantations, 50% of which were performed with NRP. Mean functional warm ischemia time was 135 minutes. Mean cold ischemia time was 14 hours. The principal PNF risk factor was young donor age (odds ratio [OR] = 0.95; P = 0.002). A sensitivity analysis showed a higher risk of PNF with ISC than with NRP (OR = 4.5; P = 0.015). Risk factors for poor renal function were donor body mass index (OR = 1.2; P < 0.001) and ISC versus NRP. Univariate analysis of uncontrolled DCD–specific risk factors showed no-flow time, functional warm time, and cold ischemia time did not affect the risk of PNF or poor renal function. Conclusions. Uncontrolled DCD kidneys are an additional source of valuable transplants. NRP appears to decrease graft failure by restoring oxygenated blood as the first step of preconditioning.

Pulsatile perfusion preservation significantly reduced DGF rate in ECD kidney transplantation.