Last year, 297 transplants were carried out, of which five organs came from donors with Covid
The president of the Community, Fernando López Miras, held a meeting on Wednesday with the coordinator of the National Transplant Organization, Beatriz Domínguez-Gil, in which it was highlighted that the Region of Murcia has once again improved its transplant indicators and registered in 2021 excellent rates of family refusals to organ donation. Thus, these rates were 8.8%, compared to 13% in 2020 and 2019, while the national figure is approximately 16%, Community sources reported in a press release.
During the meeting, López Miras highlighted “the great generosity of Murcia, even in the pandemic situation we are experiencing.” The meeting was also attended by the Minister of Health, Juan José Pedreño; the regional transplant coordinator, Dr. Ricardo Robles, as well as the transplant coordinators of the different health areas of the Region.
López Miras expressed his gratitude “to the solidarity of the donors and to the patient associations, which have contributed positively to raising awareness among the population to consent to the donation.” In addition, he valued the work “of all the health professionals involved in the coordination and in the donation and transplant programs of the Region.”
Last year, 79 organ donations were registered in the Region of Murcia, two more than in 2020, which resulted in the total procurement of 433 organs. Despite the pandemic, in 2021 the donation rate has increased to 52.3 per million population, which places the Region in third place at the national level, only behind Cantabria and Navarra.
Of the 79 donations, 66 were obtained at the Virgen de la Arrixaca Hospital in Murcia, and the remaining 13 at other hospitals in the Region: five at Santa Lucía in Cartagena, three at Reina Sofía in Murcia, three at Morales Meseguer de Murcia, and one respectively in the Rafael Méndez de Lorca and in the Mar Menor (San Javier), which with these donations made their debut in the transplant network last year.
The 433 organs obtained represent 60 more than those of 2020, when 373 were extracted. As a result of these donations, 67 livers, 110 kidneys, 15 hearts, 16 lungs, 9 pancreas, 81 corneas, 9 osteotendinous grafts and 126 vascular grafts were obtained. Of all these organs, 57 were sent to other national centers.
Thanks to obtaining these organs, 297 transplants were carried out: of them, 143 on solid organs -liver, kidney, heart and pancreas-, 102 bone marrow, while in 2020 there were 60- and 52 corneal transplants – -34 in 2020–.
First Covid-positive transplant
As relevant events in the Region, it is worth highlighting the first heart transplant performed in the country from a Covid-positive donor, which led to the change in the national transplant protocol, since it was previously contraindicated.
In addition to this first donor in 2020, five transplants were achieved in 2021 when two more Covid donors were registered. Heart, liver and both kidneys were used from the second, and liver from the third. In total, two hearts, two livers and two kidneys have been used, all of them from Covid-positive donors and in no case was the disease transmitted to the recipient.
Also significant is the cardiac donation program in asystole –at a stopped heart–, which began in 2020 and in which the Arrixaca has one of the greatest experiences in Spain.
Finally, the portable ECMO program that began in 2021 at the Hospital de Santa Lucía in Cartagena has already made it possible to carry out five procedures with the support of portable equipment for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation of blood, which makes it possible to take advantage of a greater number of organs, since they remain stable for a longer time.
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