Regional healthcare closes the year with the highest number of organ donations recorded since the transplant program was launched 39 years ago in the Region of Murcia. Specifically, 110 donations have been counted compared to 79 last year, which represents an increase of 39%. The record, until now, was 97 donors reached in 2017.
The data was offered this Friday by the regional transplant coordinator, Ricardo Robles, during a work meeting attended by the Health Minister, Juan José Pedreño. Behind these results is the push for donation in controlled asystole (when the patient dies due to cardiorespiratory arrest in the ICU once life support is removed, so that the heart and other organs are extracted and used for transplant). Of the 110 donations this year, 46 have been made in this way, which has become a successful alternative to the decrease in donations after brain death, as a result of the drop in mortality on the roads and due to cerebrovascular disease.
Since 2015, La Arrixaca has led organ donation in Spain and everything indicates that in 2023 it will be able to retain this title thanks to the new push experienced this year. Of the 110 donations registered, 92 have occurred in La Arrixaca (half of them in asystole). But these figures also reflect the growing involvement of other hospitals in the Region with the donation and transplant program.
Arrixaca has become a reference in non-asystole donation, to the point that one in four transplants performed in Spain with hearts obtained in this way are carried out in Murcia.
The Minister of Health, Juan José Pedreño, highlighted this Friday that “the Region of Murcia is one of the most supportive communities in Spain”, and added that “the work of professionals is essential when it comes to promoting organ donation in “A very painful moment such as the loss of a family member.”
“These record numbers in organ donation would not have been possible without the generosity of the families,” the counselor insisted. The rate of family refusals is currently 14% in the Region of Murcia, 3 points below the national average. The work of the professionals in charge of attracting potential donors has a lot to do with this result.
This low number of refusals has allowed, among other achievements, to exceed one hundred kidney transplants in 2023 for the first time since the kidney transplant program was launched. Specifically, 124 have already been carried out, of which nine have been possible thanks to living donors.
'Match Tour' campaign
Pedreño also congratulated the regional Transplant Coordination, the Hemodonation Center of the Region of Murcia, the universities of the Region, associations, and all those who made the 'Match Tour' campaign possible in the Region of Murcia last month October.
During this campaign, 1,059 new potential bone marrow donors were registered, a number much higher than that achieved by the rest of the autonomous communities. Behind the Region is La Rioja with 199 donors, Navarra with 153, and Castilla y León with 93.
“Our community obtained more donors than the rest of the autonomies combined, which gives an idea of the solidarity of the citizens of the Region,” highlighted the counselor.
The first organ donation and transplant program began at the Virgen de la Arrixaca hospital in 1984 and, since then, almost 6,000 people have been transplanted in the Region.
Different initiatives
Behind the figures presented there is a multidisciplinary team that has been well-oiled for many years, with the participation of numerous services in La Arrixaca and the growing involvement of other hospitals.
One of the keys is not to lose potential donors, and here La Arrixaca is especially pioneering, becoming the first hospital in Spain to donate patients who died from high-grade glioblastoma, a very aggressive tumor of the central nervous system, but It is usually very localized and has low rates of metastasis. Of the 18 heart transplants performed so far this year, 3 have been possible thanks to patients who died from this cancer.
If Murcia has opened this new donation line, it is thanks to the initiative of Juan Antonio Encarnación, a radiation oncologist from La Arrixaca whose father died of glioblastoma. He was able to donate after his son developed a doctoral thesis to demonstrate that there were no risks for the transplant patient.
Regional health was also a pioneer in the incorporation of organ donors with positive PCR for covid, after the worst moments of the pandemic. The National Transplant Organization (ONT) has recognized the different initiatives launched in La Arrixaca.
From 18 interventions in the cardiac program to a new record in the renal program
The increase in donors translates into an increase in transplants in the Region of Murcia. In the absence of knowing the global and definitive figures, some of the programs have broken records. This is the case of kidney transplant, with 124 interventions compared to 90 last year. Until 2023, the barrier of 100 kidney transplants had never been surpassed.
A new milestone has also been reached in heart transplantation, with 18 interventions this year, two more than in 2022. The last of them, carried out this week. Donation in asystole is behind this impulse. 13 of these heart transplants have been carried out with organs obtained in this way. The results in liver transplantation are also remarkable, with 70 operations compared to 46 last year, according to data provided by the Regional Transplant Coordination.
Regarding the transplant of hematopoietic cells (bone marrow), 65 have been registered in adults and 20 in children in La Arrixaca. In Morales Meseguer, another 44 have been performed, on adults.
137 cornea transplants have been performed, with Reina Sofía in the lead (52), followed by La Arrixaca (46), Santa Lucía (35) and Morales Meseguer (4).
Behind all these good results are the different initiatives that have been launched in regional healthcare in recent years. In 2021, La Arrixaca carried out the first transplant with a heart from a donation in asystole registered in another hospital in the Region. Specifically, in Morales Meseguer. This step was possible thanks to mobile equipment for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation of blood (ECMO), which allows the organ to be kept in good condition for extraction.
Also in 2021, La Arrixaca was the first Spanish hospital to turn to another community to obtain a heart from a donor in asystole. The Murcian professionals traveled to Valencia, brought the heart and implanted it in a Murcian patient.
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