Expanding donor pool by utilizing deceased donors with snake envenoming.

In India, the deceased kidney transplant program is still in its preliminary stage, and accepting deceased donors with snakebite is just a forward step to expand the donor pool. We report here the outcome of 8 successful renal transplantations from brain-dead donors who died from a neurotoxic snakebite. We accepted them as donors as they had no evidence of hemotoxic snakebite. 7 recipients did well. 1 died due to sepsis with a functioning graft. 1 required renal biopsy that showed acute tubular necrosis. 1 required re-exploration due to graft collection due to a surgical issue. Patient and graft survival in follow-up were similar to other matched deceased donors in our center. According to our experience, utilizing brain-dead donors who died from a neurotoxic snakebite is safe and may dramatically expand the donor pool especially in countries where death due to snakebite is high in numbers.
(© 2020 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)