Deceased donor bowel transplant
Find out what you need to know about deceased donor bowel transplantation
Key points
- This is the most common type of bowel donation, accounting for more than 99 in 100 UK bowel transplants
- At present, bowels are donated by deceased donors after brain death
- You will need to go on the national transplant waiting list to receive a bowel from a deceased donor
- The transplant list is not a queuing system
Types of deceased donor
Bowels are donated by deceased donors after brain death. These are donors who have been declared dead after brain testing (donation after brain death donors).
There are other types of deceased donors. For example, donors declared dead after their hearts stop beating (donation after circulatory death donors). At present, organs from these donors are not routinely being used for bowel transplantation.
Talk about donation
Every year in the UK, thousands of people's lives are saved or improved thanks to living and deceased donors. Sadly, there are still lots of patients we can’t treat because we don't have enough organs to transplant. We particularly need organs donated from people who are from ethnic minority backgrounds.
Talking about donation is crucial to raising awareness.
