Successful Kidney Transplant from Methanol-Intoxicated Donors

Abstract

The well-described disparity between the need for and the supply of organs suitable for transplant is growing. Because of this disparity, mortality of patients listed for transplant is increasing. Donors who die of intoxication (including victims of methanol poisoning) represent less than 1% of suitable donors and might be used to increase the supply of organs. They are often not accepted as donors by transplant specialists, because of concerns about patients' outcomes with these grafts. Three cases of fatal methanol intoxication that resulted in transplants of 6 kidneys are evaluated.

Successful Cardiac, Lung, and Kidney Transplantation from a Methanol-poisoned Donor

“…In our review of the literature from the past 20 years, we found that 49 kidneys, 1 heart, 1 liver, 1 lung, and 2 corneal transplants were performed. Most of them indicated favorable long-term graft function and recipient survival ( Table 1 ) (7) , (8) , (9) , (10) , (11) , (12) , (13) , (14) , (15) . Although available data including the follow-up period are limited, it is most likely that the survival of organ grafts procured from donors who died due to methanol does not differ in the short- and long-term from transplants performed with organs from donors who died from other causes (16) .…”