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Table 1 Interview guide

From: Accept or refuse? Factors influencing the decision-making of transplant surgeons who are offered a pancreas: results of a qualitative study

Introductory questions

• How long have you been working as a transplant surgeon in a responsible position?

• Are you currently performing pancreas recoveries as well?

• If a pancreas is offered to your center, what is the usual process?

Broad topic 1: Deciding about a pancreas offer

• When deciding about a pancreas offer from Eurotransplant, what criteria guide your decision?

- If medical/social parameters that are interval variables (e.g. age, BMI, length of ICU stay, P-PASS 1 ) are mentioned: Do you apply certain cut-offs for this parameter?

• How relevant is the macroscopic evaluation performed by the recovery team?

• How important is it for you that the donor and recipient match well?

Broad topic 2: Non-medical refusal reasons

• How might your decision be influenced if you are told that the organ has been previously refused by other centers?

• Have you ever heard that pancreases have been refused due to capacity reasons or even witnessed it personally?

 

• Could you imagine that under certain circumstances, a pancreas might be refused due to infrastructure reasons in your clinic, e.g. due to staff shortage? Has that ever happened?

  1. 1P-PASS = pre-procurement pancreas allocation suitability score, combining nine donor parameters, e.g. age, body mass index, ICU stay, and (nor)adrenaline use. The DRI (donor risk index), an alternative prognostic score for pancreas transplantation, is not commonly used in Germany and was therefore not included explicitly in the interview guide.