The Role of Thyroid Hormone Administration in Potential Organ Donors

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Abstract
ORGAN transplantation has become the preferred treatment for end-stage cardiac, pulmonary, renal, hepatic, and endocrine failure. With improving anesthetic, surgical, and immunologic techniques, the indications for transplantation are increasing, with a parallel increase in the number of potential recipients. However, the number of available donor organs has not increased sufficiently to match this high demand and, as a result, many patients do not receive the transplants they need. Because of the discrepancy between supply and demand, as many as 3000 patients die each year in the United States while waiting for an organ transplant and as many as 100 000 potential candidates die before they are even placed on the waiting list.1