• ONT Transplants in Spain recover pre-pandemic figures
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Transplant activity in Spain has grown by 23% during the first quarter of the year, according to the latest balance made by the National Transplant Organization (ONT), which is published coinciding with the anniversary of National Transplant Day.

According to data from the ONT, until March 15, the number of transplants has registered a significant increase compared to 2022, thanks also to the increase in donation activity, with 505 people who donated their organs after dying in the first 74 days of this year, 23% more than in the same period of 2022.

To them are added the 78 people who have donated a kidney or part of their liver in life, a figure that grows by 37% over the previous year. As explained by the general director of the ONT, Beatriz Domínguez-Gil, "the significant increase in activity of these first months places us in figures similar to those of 2019, the year in which we registered historical highs".

The growth in these months is widespread in all types of transplant. Thus, a total of 756 kidney transplants have been performed (21% more than the same period last year); 268 hepatic patients (+21%); 100 pulmonary (+39%); 79 cardiac (+23%); 21 pancreas (+31%); and 2 intestinal.

Likewise, living donor transplant activity has grown by 37% compared to 2022. This volume of activity has also meant a high level of work in the central coordination office of the ONT in which 14 nurses with a high level of specialization work. Although the average is 7 donors per day, the ONT has registered peaks of activity of up to 16 donors in 24 hours throughout the national territory.

The director of the National Transplant Organization has also highlighted the relevance of donation in asystole for the expansion of transplantation. Thus, as of March 15, 2023, this program has experienced a growth of 24% compared to the same period of the previous year. It should be noted that this type of donation has gone from being exclusively renal to becoming multiorgan, thanks to the generalization of the preservation procedure based on extracorporeal circulation devices (ECMO).

On this National Transplant Day, the ONT and the Ministry of Health recognize the important work of health professionals and patient associations that make up the Union of Solid Organ Transplants (UTxs), as well as the solidarity of donors and their families who say yes to donation and who, with this affirmation, "They leave a mark."

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