Last year 325 reports of potential donors (+6.2%) and 222 donors used (+7.7%), for a total of 585 transplants performed (+13.4%). Never have so many heart, liver and lung transplants. The share of oppositions is confirmed to be particularly low: just 66 (20.3%) registered in the entire region
January 22, 2024 – In Emilia Romagna the transplant machine continues to grow, or rather to run: in 2023 They were 585 transplants performedthus registering the highest number of interventions ever recorded in the region.
A result that confirms and strengthens the growth of recent years (the interventions were 516 in 2022 and 493 in 2021), achieved thanks to the increase in potential donors reported by hospitals (325, +6.2% compared to the previous year), and the strength of the territorial network coordinated by Transplant Reference Center. And consequently, so do the donors actually used (222, +7.7%), demonstrating the system’s ability to optimize available resources. So, good 585 (+13,4%) transplanted organs because they were considered suitable also thanks to the innovative treatment techniques introduced in recent years.
They also grow transplants from a non-heart running donor (DCD), i.e. from a donor whose death is ascertained using cardiological and not encephalic criteria. Well 70 reports of heart-stopped donation (17 more than in 2022) e 62 donors used (14 more) for a total of 122 organs removed and transplanted with this technique, decidedly more complex but capable of giving more hope to waiting patients. In particular, i heart transplants from DCD donation They were performed for the first time in the region itself last year: in total in 2023 the cardiac surgeons of the IRCCS Policlinico di Sant’Orsola completed 4.
“Never like this year – underlines the regional councilor for health policies, Raffaele Donini– in Emilia-Romagna such a high number of transplants has been recorded. We must thank those who decide to donate, making a gesture of extraordinary generosity, the awareness and information work of voluntary associations and that of our healthcare professionals. Thanks to a widespread, strong and well-organized donation and transplant system, we can proudly say that our region is an excellence in this field.”
“For all the staff of the Transplant Reference Center it was a year of intense work, which ended with the great satisfaction of improving the data recorded in the already excellent 2022 – he comments Nicola Alvaro, director of the Emilia-Romagna CRT. The merit of these results must be shared with the professionals of the Hospital Procurement Coordinations present in the regional intensive therapies, with all the services that support the donation-transplant path 24 hours a day and with all our transplant centers, which have proven once again extremely performing and open to innovative techniques. But it is also thanks to the great generosity of the citizens of Emilia-Romagna”.
2023, the year of the heart and lung
In 2023 they were 50 the operations performed by the Heart Transplant Center of the IRCCS Policlinico di Sant’Orsola in Bologna. A figure with a sharp increase compared to the average of recent years, stopping at around 30 transplants. But above all, a record number from 1997 (the year the CRT was established) to today.
The round figure was also achieved thanks to the 9 transplants on pediatric patients or those with congenital heart disease followed by the pediatric and developmental cardiac surgery team. The IRCCS Policlinico di Sant’Orsola is, in fact, the only cardiology-cardiac surgery center in Italy to boast the possibility of following the patient from prenatal diagnosis to adulthood, guaranteeing total care during the entire period of life and offering the option of transplant and mechanical assistance to all age groups.
Also for lung transplants it was a record year: 14 those performed by the Thoracic Surgery of the IRCCS Policlinico di Sant’Orsola, 5 more than in 2022.
Liver transplants are on the rise
Pure i liver transplants see a strong increase. Well 289 those counted between the IRCCS Policlinico di Sant’Orsola in Bologna (139) and the University Hospital of Modena (150, 9 of which from living donors). Overall it’s a 17% increaseconfirming a constant growth trend for years now: despite the slight setback due to the pandemic, in the region liver transplants have almost tripled in the space of five years (in 2018 there were 111).
Confirmation of kidney transplants
However, kidney transplants remained substantially stable: 232 (3 more than the previous year) those carried out between the hospitals of Bologna, Modena and Parma. In detail, the IRCCS Policlinico di Sant’Orsola performed 100 transplants with organs taken from cadavers and 31 from living donors, the University Hospital of Modena used 31 organs from cadavers and 8 from living donors and the University Hospital of Parma has performed 54 cadaveric and 8 living kidney transplants.
Only a fifth of opposition
In 2023 the oppositions to the donation were 66, the same figure as in 2022, but their percentage incidence has fallen further (equal to 20.3%, more than one point less than the previous year). For years Emilia-Romagna has been consistently below the national average, achieving one of the lowest opposition percentages among the Italian regions.
The reasons behind the numbers
The credit for these numbers must be attributed to the excellent performances of the transplant centers of Bologna, Modena and Parma as for theorganization of the regional donation network coordinated by the Transplant Reference Center. The enhancement launched in 2017 with the establishment of the COP (hospital procurement coordination) for the identification of organ and tissue donors has in fact increased the already high attention paid to the 23 donation sites spread throughout the Emilia-Romagna area. The numbers for 2023 must, therefore, to awareness and support activities carried out over the years by the Emilia-Romagna CRT, to capillary organisation of the regional network e to the high organ acceptance index demonstrated by transplant centers.
To know more
The Transplant Reference Center of Emilia-Romagna
Il Transplant Reference Center of Emilia-Romagna was established in 1997, the first in Italy, following the regional law 53/1995.
Emilia-Romagna was in fact the first region to adopt a specific regional law to structure and make collaboration between hospitals on the subject of transplants more efficient: a pioneering model for Italy, so much so that it was taken as an example in just a few years. after its establishment, for the drafting of the national law regarding the removal and transplantation of organs and tissues (law 91 of 1999).
The CRT is the regional governing body, whose operational headquarters are located at l’IRCCS Sant’Orsola Polyclinic of Bologna, to make the organ and tissue donation and transplantation process work as best as possible, which in Emilia-Romagna is organized according to the ‘Hub & Spoke’ model. In this way, the connection between highly specialized centers and local hospitals with donation sites, transplant centers and networked tissue and cell bank sites is also guaranteed. The Center also refers to the Ministry of Health (National Transplant Center).
The donation network in Emilia-Romagna
From Piacenza to Rimini they are 23 hospitals are responsible for reporting organ, tissue and cell donors. Instead they are 3 centers for organ transplant activities: the University Hospital of Parma, which deals with kidney and kidney-pancreas transplants, that of Modena, specialized in liver and kidney, and that of Bologna, where kidney, kidney-pancreas, heart, liver, lung, intestine and multiviscerals.