Introduction:

The process of organ and tissue donation is defined by actions to transform a Potential Donor (PD) into an effective donor and begins with the diagnosis of brain death.

Objective:

To analyze the clinical and sociodemographic profile of potential organ donors, as well as the factors that influence organ donation.

Methods:

This is a quantitative, cross-sectional, retrospective, and analytical research carried out in a region of Northeast Brazil by collecting data from 455 medical records of patients with brain death, who were diagnosed using a structured form. Subsequently, descriptive analyzes were carried out and for the associations between the independent and dependent variables, the Pearson's chi-square test was used.

Results:

The age groups with the highest incidence were between 21 to 40 years old and 41 to 60 years old, with a 33.8 % each, with a predominance of males (64.1%). Regarding the cause of death, traumatic brain injury was the most common with a 36.5% of the sample. From the 83.3% of the family members that were interviewed, 53.5% of them authorized the donation. Male potential donors constituted the 59.01% of the authorized donations (positive interviews). There was no relationship between the interview results and the age group of the PD. When correlating the results of family interviews and the cause of death, 40.63% of them were caused by traumatic brain injury and, out of this total, 63.63% had the donation authorized.

Conclusion:

The most effective donors were young and male whose cause of brain death was traumatic brain injury and whose families allowed the donation.