Ricardo Robles: “Our challenge is lung transplantation in 2025”

The regional coordinator of Transplants, researcher and professor of Surgery at the University of Murcia, Ricardo Robles Campos, announced this Wednesday, in his speech at the Tertulia La Luz forum in Murcia, that “our challenge is that in two years we are prepared to perform lung transplants in the Region. These are quite complicated protocols, but we are taking very important steps to be able to achieve it in 2025. And in this way we will be able to prevent the affected Murcians from being forced to move to other autonomous communities«.

Dr. Robles highlighted the growth in the number of transplants in the Region, which last year reached 419 interventions, which represents an increase of 29 percent over the previous year, placing the donor rate above the national average (48 4 donors per million population). Robles, who thanked the work of the professional teams, the associations of patients and the families involved, pointed out that “we still have a lot of work ahead of us, but we are on the right track.” All the data indicates that this year the 166 solid organ transplants will be widely exceeded, of which 90 were kidney, 55 liver and 16 heart. In the latter case, he also highlighted that the Virgen de la Arrixaca hospital is the leading heart transplant center in Spain with asystolic donors. To ratify these figures, the regional coordinator highlighted that in the first quarter of the year the number of transplants performed during the same period in the previous year has increased by 23.

In children’s liver transplants, “we are also making progress until we are able to stabilize the program”, indicated Dr. Robles, who highlighted the considerable reduction in waiting lists that the greater activity and greater social awareness entails”.

Ricardo Robles has chaired the prestigious European Surgical Association (ESA in English) for the last two years. For many he is considered the successor of Professor Pascual Parrilla, of whom he declares himself a fervent apprentice: «He is the great teacher of surgery at a national and international level. Thanks to his teaching and the work of all the department heads and professors who have continued his great work, in Murcia we can enjoy one of the best surgery services in Spain. Pascual Parrilla has marked a before and after in the history of medicine in the Region.