During the donation surgery, just prior to removal of the
donated organs, an ice cold preservative solution is flushed into each of the organ. This starts the process of preserving the donated organs. Sterile ice is also placed in the body cavities to aid in the cooling. Once the organs are removed from the
donor's body, they are packed in several layers of sterile containers and further cooled when these sterile containers are surrounded with an icy slush mixture. The goal is to cool but not freeze the organs.

Commonly used preservation solutions include ViaSpan (University of Wisconsin) Solution and Eurocollins solution. Research has shown that they work by bathing the cells of the donated organs in a fluid that is similar to the constituents inside
of the cells. This is thought to reduce the amount of damage
and limit the swelling that would otherwise occur.

All organs except kidneys are stored using simple hypothermia,
in other words they're just kept cold in the preservative
solution. Occasionally, kidneys are placed on a machine that continuously pumps preservation solution through them.
Although not very common, this machine, known as a pulsatile perfusion device, may allow transplant surgeons to better
assess the suitability of some questionably transplantable
kidneys.