La Arrixaca once again leads organ donation in Spain

Since 2015, La Arrixaca has led organ donation in Spain, and last year was no exception. One of the keys behind this success is the power that the donation program has reached in asystole (at a stopped heart), which has led the hospital to become the health center that performs the most heart transplants with organs obtained through this new route. . Specifically, four interventions of this type have already been carried out in La Arrixaca, out of a total of 15 throughout the country. The general director of the National Transplant Organization (ONT), Beatriz Domínguez-Gil, highlighted this Friday all this work carried out in the Region of Murcia during the presentation of the annual balance.

Non-heart beating donation is an alternative to organs from brain-dead patients, and has been gaining more and more importance in the Region and throughout Spain due to the fall in mortality from stroke and traffic accidents. Of the 66 donations registered last year in La Arrixaca, 29 occurred after the death of the donor due to cardiorespiratory arrest. But, in addition, five other multi-organ extractions of this type were carried out in other hospitals in the Region thanks to a portable extracorporeal oxygenation equipment (ECMO). This device makes it possible to take advantage of a greater number of organs, by keeping them stable for a longer time.

In total, last year 79 organ donations were registered in the Region, compared to 77 in 2020. To the 66 donations from La Arrixaca were added those produced in the rest of the health network. The coordinator of the regional transplant program, Ricardo Robles, highlights the incorporation of Los Arcos and Rafael Méndez.

The third most supportive

All this solidarity placed the Region in third place in terms of donors, with 52.3 per million inhabitants. Only Cantabria (72.4) and Navarra (62.1) exceeded this figure.

Registered donations made it possible to carry out 143 solid organ transplants, three more than in 2020. Specifically, 85 kidney transplants, 46 liver transplants, 9 heart transplants and 3 pancreas transplants were carried out The increase is even greater if transplants are added hematopoietic cells (102 compared to 60 the previous year), and cornea (52 compared to 34 in 2020). In total, 297 interventions, which represents an increase of 30%.

However, the Region has not yet recovered pre-pandemic figures. In 2019 there were 95 donations and 174 solid organ transplants. The balance, in any case, is positive, because activity has been increased despite the fact that the regional health system was hit by the third wave, much more intense than the waves registered in 2020.

Pioneers against Covid

In addition, La Arrixaca has become a reference in the donation of patients with positive PCR. A year ago now, this center received the first of these donations in Spain, which allowed a heart transplant to be carried out. This milestone led to a change in national protocols, and transplants with organs from patients who, although they have positive PCR, no longer show clinical symptoms and die from causes other than Covid, were authorized.

After this first case, in the Region there were two other donations from patients with positive PCR, which allowed the performance of six transplants of different organs. Throughout Spain there have been six donors of this type. That is, half of them were from the Region of Murcia.

The results of 2021 also show “excellent rates of family refusals”, highlights Ricardo Robles, coordinator of the regional transplant program. Only 8.8% of families refused to donate organs when this possibility was raised in the Region of Murcia, compared to an average of 13.3% in Spain.

The balance is also positive in the country as a whole. The general director of the ONT, Beatriz Domínguez-Gil, highlighted this Friday the growth, by 8%, of the transplant activity in 2021. In total, 4,781 transplants were carried out thanks to the 1,905 people who donated their organs after death.