Potential Role of Imaging in Cadaveric Organ Donation

Diagnostic imaging in cadaveric organ donation has additional value in helping to make the decision on whether or not to proceed to explantation of specific organs for transplantation. Specific diagnostic imaging routines are employed according to the specific type of transplantation that will be performed. As liver donation is always part of a multiorgan donation procedure, this chapter first briefly alludes to general pre-explantation imaging and then focuses on imaging relevant for liver transplantation. The findings of such imaging studies in the cadaveric organ donor have to be regarded in the context of the other acceptance criteria (Pruim et al. 1993). Thus, the isolated imaging findings in the donor have limited clinical significance, but embedded in the clinical context, adequate diagnostic imaging can provide useful and sometimes essential information for transplant surgeons.