Organ donation for transplantation: improving donor identification and consent rates for deceased organ donation

New evidence

We found 23 new studies in a search for all publication types published between 14 August 2013 and 19 July 2016. We also considered 4 additional studies identified by members of the guideline committee who originally worked on this guideline.

Evidence identified in the previous evidence update 2 years after publication of the guideline was also considered. This included 11 studies identified by search.

From all sources, 38 studies were considered to be relevant to the guideline. We found 118 additional studies but these were conducted in other countries outside the UK and not used to inform the surveillance decision.

We also checked for relevant ongoing research, which will be evaluated again at the next surveillance review of the guideline.

See appendix A: summary of new evidence from surveillance and references for all new evidence considered.

Views of topic experts

We considered the views of topic experts, including those who helped to develop the guideline.

Views of stakeholders

Stakeholders commented on the decision not to update the guideline. Overall, 4 stakeholders commented. See appendix B for stakeholders' comments and our responses.

Four stakeholders commented on the proposal to not update the guideline: 1 agreed with the decision and 3 disagreed with the decision. Most of the comments were related to the guidance on diagnosis of brain stem death in infants between 37 weeks' gestation and 2 months (post-term) published by the RCPCH in 2015. Therefore, it was decided to include a footnote to recommendation 1.1.2. This footnote is to make reference to the guidance. The footnote will also include a link to the guidance.

This surveillance review also proposed to remove 5 research recommendations from the NICE version of NICE guideline CG135 and the NICE research recommendations database. All four consultees answered the proposal. Consultees disagreed with the proposal of removing the research recommendations. It was decided to retain four of these research recommendations based on the feedback on their importance.

See ensuring that published guidelines are current and accurate in 'Developing NICE guidelines: the manual' for more details on our consultation processes.

NICE Surveillance programme project team

Sarah Willett
Associate Director

Philip Alderson
Consultant Clinical Adviser

Katrina Sparrow
Technical Adviser

Yolanda Martinez
Technical Analyst

The NICE project team would like to thank the topic experts who participated in the surveillance process.

ISBN: 978-1-4731-2211-6