Grant: Project Grant

End-stage organ failure presents complex issues and challenges for Canadian patients, clinicians and the health care system. Patients with end stage organ failure often require a transplant to save their lives. Unfortunately, there is a growing gap between the number of donors and the number of patients waiting for transplantation. In 2018, 4351 Canadians were awaiting transplant, and 223 died while waiting. The rate of organ donation from deceased donors is increasing in Canada, while the rate from living donors is decreasing. One way to improve the rate and success of organ transplants is to improve the medical care of deceased organ donors. Once brain dead, the body has physical reactions including swelling which can be harmful to the organs being considered for transplant. This swelling can affect how well the organ transplant "takes" or survives within the recipient, specifically damage when blood supply and oxygen returns to the organ. Survival rates of recipients have improved over the past several years because of drugs given that suppress the immune system and prevent rejection. These drugs are routinely used in transplantation, and we are proposing to study the effect of one of these commonly used medications (tacrolimus) in deceased donors for organ donation. This small study will investigate the use of tacrolimus in deceased kidney donors to see if it is possible to obtain the information needed to prove that use of this drug during deceased donor management is beneficial for organ recipients in a larger study. Results of this study will inform researchers for the design of a future clinical trial on organ donor management; and final results will hopefully change practice, and improve the rate and success of transplant surgery in Canada.