The National Transplant Center summarizes the year 2021 and publishes new data on the subject. The data show that in the past year, the center has reached an all-time high of transplants – 647 transplants from living and deceased donors. In cardiac, liver and kidney transplants from deceased donors, there was an increase of about 20%, and in lung transplants – an increase of about 60%. In the field of living donors there was an increase of 18%, and within them a 30% increase among altruistic donors.
The rate of consent to donation from the deceased remains stable at 61%. The increase in the number of transplants was due to the ability to save more organs from each donor. There was also an increase in the number of people waiting for a transplant – from 1266 to 1299 people. In the past year, 68 patients waiting for a transplant have died. This is an increase compared to the previous year, in which 63 waiters died.
From each donor who dies, several transplants are usually performed. In kidney transplants, there was an increase from 118 to 145. In liver transplants there is an increase from 72 to 87. In heart transplants, there was an increase from 20 to 24, and in lung transplants – from 34 to 55. Corneal transplantation also has a significant increase from 640 in 2020 to 788 in 2021.
In addition, there was a 56% increase in cross-transplant surgeries among couples in whom no match was found. 72 kidney transplants from live donors were performed after finding matches in both the Transplant Center’s national database and the international database established, compared to 46 transplants last year, thanks to altruistic donors from the Transplant Center who were placed in the national database to produce more matching options.
In these situations, donors from all couples, “left without a donor,” donated to a patient from the national list. Thanks to two altruistic donors who went directly to the transplant center, eight transplants were performed in two chains this year. Two exchanges were also made with the Czech Republic and one with the United Arab Emirates, in which a triple cross was made between three pairs of relatives.
According to Dr. Tamar Ashkenazi, director of the National Transplant Center: “This year we increased the number of partners in the International Kidney Transplant Database through cross-sections between couples that did not match. We call on families who have not found a suitable content to join the national cross-reference database, where hope lies. ”