A record year for Polish transplantology

January 26 is National Transplantation Day - on this day in 1966 the first successful kidney transplant was performed. To mark the occasion, on Friday, January 24, Health Minister Izabela Leszczyna visited Warsaw Medical University - WUM's University Clinical Center is the largest transplant center in Poland. Leszczyna thanked all doctors who save people's lives through transplants. She also thanked the coordinators "who are the good spirits of this complicated process, when we can no longer save the life of one person, but can save the life of others." She mentioned families who, by agreeing to donate the organs of a dying loved one, choose to save the lives of others they do not know, and people who, while alive, declare that in the event of death their organs can serve others.

Thanks to organ donations, thanks to transplants, 2197 patients were given a chance at life in 2024. In 2023 it was 1805 people, and in 2022 it was 1402 people. - Transplantation has been developing fantastically for several years," she said.

This would not be possible without adequate funding. Last year, the National Health Fund spent about PLN 900 million on organ transplantation procedures, and the Ministry of Health subsidized centers under the National Transplantation Program with PLN 100 million. This is money to support infrastructure, purchase equipment and training. Leszczyna stressed that transplants are not limited, and as long as donors are found, the Fund will pay for all operations performed.

The problem with organ availability was also pointed out by Prof. Michal Grąt, head of the Department of General, Transplant and Liver Surgery at UCK WUM, national consultant for clinical transplantation, and pro-rector of WUM, although he noted that all transplant programs have improved in this regard in the past year. Prof. Grąt, who is himself involved in liver transplantation, stressed that there has been tremendous progress in this area, such as transplantation oncology or assisted transplantation.

Prof. Mariusz Kuśmierczyk, head of the Department of Heart, Chest and Transplant Surgery at UCK WUM, estimated that 201 heart transplants at seven centers in 2024 is a record. A record can also be spoken of with regard to lung transplants, as 147 such operations were performed in 2024.

A reason for pride for UCK WUM is a unique system for transporting a beating heart, thanks to which the chances of patients waiting for a transplant of this organ have increased. The system, which makes it possible to transport a beating heart for up to 12 hours, but also delivers all the necessary substances to the heart, has already been used six times. Its great advantage is also that it gives specialists more time to decide whether the heart is suitable for transplantation. This also improves the chances of recipients, because previously doctors had to be 100 percent sure right away. - This system is likely to be available to all centers and will allow more hearts to be transplanted in the future, he said.

A very big challenge, still, is pediatric donation. - It is still mainstream that it is the parents who ask doctors to report the organs of their deceased child so that they can save other children," admitted Prof. Kuśmierczyk. Some doctors, he explained, are afraid to talk about organ transplantation in a situation of great tragedy experienced by loved ones.