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

Abstract

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.