New pathway for kidney transplants: Donations after the heart stops

From 2020 to 2024, a total of 12 patients received kidney donations from donors who died of cardiac arrest, in a practice that has now been implemented nationwide, said the Ministry of Health (MOH).

- Joyce Teo

These are also known as donations after circulatory death (DCDs) and are unlike conventional donations after brain death, in which organ donation occurs in patients declared brain-dead.

DCD occurs after the heart has stopped beating irreversibly and circulation and oxygenation to the tissues stop irreversibly. This is known as circulatory death.

Singapore’s first kidney DCD was carried out in 2016, said MOH.

“Following a pilot programme, kidney DCD was subsequently extended nationwide in 2024,” a spokesman said.

While DCD is relatively new in Singapore, such donations have been increasing in countries like Britain and the US.

In Asia, South Korea - whose organ donation system depends almost entirely on brain-dead donors - announced on Oct 16 its first-ever national plan to allow organ donations after a patient’s heart stops, in a bid to ease the nation’s severe transplant shortage.

Other organs such as the liver, lungs, pancreas and heart can also be recovered for transplant after circulatory death is certified, but these have not been carried out in Singapore.