Abstract

CADAVER TRANSPLANTATION: DONATE ORGAN, DONATE LIFE

Pooja Agarwal*, M. Manasa Padma, M. Ravi Kumar

ABSTRACT

Cadaver Transplantation [1] means an organ or tissue transplanted from a deceased and usually unrelated donor. The emerging field of regenerative medicine is allowing scientists and engineers to create organs to be re-grown from the person's own cells (stem cells, or cells extracted from the failing organs). Organs that can be transplanted are the heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas, intestine, and thymus. Tissues include bones, tendons (both referred to as musculoskeletal grafts), cornea, skin, heart valves, nerves and veins. Worldwide, the kidneys are the most commonly transplanted organs, followed by the liver and then the heart. Cornea and musculoskeletal grafts are the most commonly transplanted tissues; these outnumber organ transplants by more than tenfold. Organ donors may be living, brain dead, or dead via circulatory death. Tissue may be recovered from donors who die of circulatory death, as well as of brain death.

Keywords: cadaver, transplantation, donor, organ, brain dead.