Surgical Approach for Rapid and Minimally Traumatic Recovery of Human Inner Ear Tissues From Deceased Organ Donors

Objective: To develop a surgical approach for rapid and minimally traumatic recovery of inner ear tissue from human organ and tissue donors to provide fresh tissue for use in inner ear research. Study Design: Exploration of novel surgical methodology and evaluation of the steps necessary for obtaining specimens from donors during the procurement of organs for transplantation. Setting: Donor procurement locations across multiple local hospitals and tissue processing at the microsurgical temporal bone laboratory. Patients Tissue Source: Human organ and tissue donors. Interventions: Dissection and procurement of the inner ear tissue. Main Outcome Measures: Development of rapid and minimally traumatic inner ear tissue recovery. Primarily, establishing an efficient process which includes collaboration with transplant network, implementing a consent protocol, developing and training an on-call recovery team, and designing a portable surgical kit suitable for use in a variety of settings. Results: The extraction procedure is described in three consecutive steps: the trans-canal exposure, the approach to the vestibule with extraction of the vestibular organs; and the approach to extract inner ear tissues from the cochlear duct. Conclusions: Organ and tissue donors are a promising and underutilized resource of inner ear organs for purposes of research and future translational studies. Using our modified technique through the trans-canal/trans-otic approach, we were able to extract tissues of the vestibular and auditory end organs in a timely manner.

Automated summary

The objective of this study was to develop a surgical approach for rapid and minimally traumatic recovery of inner ear tissue from human organ and tissue donors to provide fresh tissue for inner ear research. The results showed that the modified technique of trans-canal/trans-otic approach enabled timely extraction of vestibular and auditory end organs. Organ and tissue donors are a promising but underutilized resource for inner ear research.