Transplantation proceedings
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Although the number of organ donations is extremely small in Japan, organ donation from brain dead (DBD) donors is increasing since the revised Law for Organ Transplantation was enacted on July 17, 2010. In our institution, organ donations had so far been performed from 247 donors (DCD 242, DBD 5), which is the largest number in Japan. In this study, we analyzed the status of organ donation before and after the enforcement of the revised law. ⋯ The frequency of DBD donors of all donors increased (33.3%) as compared to 9.1% before the enforcement of the revised law. Reasons for rejection of donation from donor families were mainly based on the lack of understanding of brain death. To increase organ donation, we should promote social recognition of brain death, having the Organ Donation Card, and discussion of organ donation in each family.
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Facial allotransplantation represents a novel frontier in the reconstruction of complex human facial defects. To develop more refined surgical techniques and yield fine results, it is required to make a suitable animal model. The development of a model of composite facial and scalp allograft in canines is more appealing: In large animals, canine facial anatomy is the most similar to humans; its facial nerve anatomy also resembles humans'; and canines possess the most similar facial vascular anatomy to humans. These factors led to the development of a canine composite facial allograft model. ⋯ We documented that this model is well qualified in every aspect for use as a standard transplantation training model and future research work.