Non-heart-beating donation

Prior to the introduction of brain death into law in the mid to late 1970s, all organ transplants from cadaveric donors came from non-heart beating donors (NHBDs). Prior to the introduction of brain death into law in the mid to late 1970s, all organ transplants from cadaveric donors came from non-heart beating donors (NHBDs). Donors after brain-dead (DBD) (beating heart cadavers), however, led to better results as the organs were perfused with oxygenated blood until the point of perfusion and cooling at organ retrieval, and so NHBDs were generally no longer used except in Japan, where brain death was not legally, until very recently, or culturally recognized.