Prague, Feb 14 (CTK) – Almost 9,000 patients have received a new organ in the Czech Republic since the establishment of the Transplantation Coordination Centre (KST) in 2004, KST director Milos Adamec told journalists on Tuesday.
During the time, the KST registered over 3000 donors, Adamec said.
Kidney is the most frequently transplanted organ in the Czech Republic. It is received by about 500 patients annually, he added.
Transplants were also performed before the centre was formed, but the activities were not centrally coordinated.
Last year, doctors performed 808 transplants, which is 15 more than a year ago.
They gained the organs from 262 deceased and 49 living donors, Adamec said.
“Kidney is the most frequently transplanted organ because people have two kidneys. Thanks to this, each donor can give them to two recipients,” Adamec said.
“Technologically, it is an easy surgery, not as complicated as the lung transplantation,” Adamec said.
Kidneys have been transplanted in the Czech Republic for over 50 years.
In the Prague-based Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine (IKEM) and the centre that preceded the establishment of the IKEM, over 600 transplanted kidneys have been registered.
Adamec said liver was relatively often transplanted in recent years, too.
Last year, there were 179 such surgeries.
In addition, Czech doctors are able to divide one organ into two, helping both a child and adult recipients, Adamec said.
Although the number of donors is rising, it is still impossible to gain organs for all patients who need them, Adamec said.
Around 1,000 patients are placed on the waiting list annually, he added.
The centre, which is directly administered by the Health Ministry, is in charge of coordination of the transplantation activities in the Czech Republic, managing transplantation registers.
It also represents the Czech Republic in the international programme of exchange of organs Foedus.
There are seven transplant centres in the Czech Republic. Along with two in Prague, they are in Brno, Ostrava, north Moravia, Olomouc, north Moravia, Plzen, west Bohemia, and Hradec Kralove, east Bohemia.
New kidneys can be received by patients in all of the centres, the heart only in Prague and Brno, and lungs only in the Teaching Hospital in Motol in Prague.
IKEM has the biggest scope as it accounts for over one half of the total number of transplantations. Last year, the centre started transplanting the uterus.
