Transplantation medicine is undergoing an extraordinary progress nowadays. The number of organ transplants has been permanently increasing.
The organ donation program represents a cornerstone of transplantation medicine. The majority of organs for transplantation in the Czech Republic is harvested from brain-dead donors.
The legislative and organisational framework has been defined by the Transplantation Act and related documents. In this atricle we review the basics of brain death pathofysiology, brain death diagnostics and the complex management of the organ donor in intensive care units.