Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation in brain-death organ and tissues donors: a single-centre experience.

Organ donation and transplant rates vary widely across the globe, but there remains an almost universal shortage of deceased donors. Actually, in the Western Hemisphere, the number of potential transplant recipients has increased to almost 140 000 and yet the number of donated organs from all sources is not increasing sufficiently to maintain an acceptable situation.1 Veno-venous or veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is the treatment of refractory cardiogenic shock and of severe acute respiratory distress syndrome. ECMO can be also used in patients with neurological injury both in the case of cardio-circulatory failure refractory to conventional treatment or in the presence of cardiorespiratory instability during determination of brain death (BD).