Transplantology in numbers

The numbers are similar from year to year and oscillate around 780 deceased donors. Last year, it was 782 people. However, there are fewer actual donors. Sometimes it turns out that the deceased has made a declaration that he or she does not want to donate, or the family does not agree to the donation. Around 15% of deceased donors are usually discarded in this way. Last year, the number of real donors was 594 people.

Of course, it is not possible to give an exact number here, but only statistical data, because each case is individual. Last year, a total of 594 organs were transplanted thanks to 1531 real donors. Every year the numbers fluctuate in similar ranges and after recalculation it turns out that an average of 2,5 organs is obtained from one real donor for transplantation.

Invariably, these are the kidneys for years. Every year, over a thousand of them are transplanted in Poland. This is due to the fact that both kidneys can be collected from the deceased donor and will go to two different recipients.

Lobes of the liver rank second in terms of the number of deceased donors. Every year there are over 300 transplanted fragments.

The small number of lung transplants may surprise you. There are only a dozen of them in our country each year. For example, last year there were 19 organs taken from deceased donors. This is due to the fact that potential donors have to meet many criteria. First of all, they must not have damaged lungs as a result of an accident, they must not be smokers with more than 20 years’ experience, or be on a ventilator for more than two days. Moreover, the lungs must be very carefully selected in terms of shape and weight.

For obvious reasons, there are much fewer living donors, and only kidneys and liver fragments are collected from them. Last year, 55 kidneys and 30 liver fragments were transplanted in this way. It is worth mentioning that the liver has the ability to regrow, so transplanting a fragment of it is enough for both the recipient and the donor to function normally later.

It must be remembered that apart from whole organs, their fragments or tissues are also transplanted. An example of a transplanted tissue is a cornea taken from a dead donor’s eye. In 2014, 938 of them were attached.

Last year, there was also a transplant, which was done only once in 12 months. It’s about a hand transplant. It was also the first time that the larynx was transplanted along with the organs of the neck.

Unfortunately, the number of transplants does not fully cover the patients’ needs. On September 30, 2015, on the lists of people waiting for a transplant, there were, among others, 914 patients in need of a kidney, 163 in need of a liver, 358 in need of a heart and 17 people in need of an upper limb.

However, we are glad that more and more people declare their willingness to donate organs after death for transplantation. September 30 this year. in the Central Register of Unrelated Potential Donors of Marrow and Cord Blood, there were almost 875 thousand. people.