Kidneys of potential donors undergoing sudden cardiac arrest are generally not gathered because the warm ischemia time is too long until nephrectomy. A rapid in situ cold perfusion technique was developed to preserve kidneys in 21 brain-dead patients after cardiac arrest not responding to cardiac resuscitation. In 7 of the 21 potential donors, the in situ perfusion was unsuccessful. In 14 other subjects this technique permitted to save 15 transplantable kidneys; 1 month after grafting, the renal function was similar to that observed in kidneys gathered in living patients. The in situ perfusion technique allows to increase by nearly 10% the efficacy of kidney gathering.