Dr. József Bódis, state secretary of the Ministry for Innovation and Technology responsible for higher education, innovation and vocational training, said at the press conference that health care providers where there is also medical training represent a higher quality in terms of patient care as well. In addition to the human resources available at the clinics, this is made possible by the scientific background that is at hand, he added. The state secretary thanked the work of those people in the past who made it possible for organ transplantation to become a “routine operation” by today. He also pointed out that behind each routine, there are numerous developments and innovations, and Semmelweis University can be proud of its performance in this area.
Within Eurotransplant, which covers eight countries and 80 active transplantation centers, Semmelweis University places high with regard to three types of organ transplants, announced rector Dr. Béla Merkely, director of the Városmajor Heart and Vascular Center. Presenting the latest European figures, he noted that for years the university has been in second place with regard to the number of heart transplants performed, continuously increasing the number of heart transplants, which numbered 64 in 2019. There were 130 deceased-donor kidney transplants last year, with which the university missed the top spot on this list by just a single transplant. With 80 liver transplants performed, the university also placed second within all Eurotransplant centers.
The rector said the most important goal of the university is to make organ transplantation available to as many people as possible, thus improving their quality of life. Therefore, he would like to see the university at the top of one of the organ transplant lists next year. “This primarily serves the interest of patients, but the results also show what Hungarian health care, higher education, and within that, medical universities, are capable of,” he added. Currently, the university’s departments keep in contact with more than 3,500 transplant patients. The rector pointed out that behind every successful organ transplant is the hard work of around 100 health care workers, one-third of whom are doctors and two-thirds health care professionals.
Dr. Sándor Mihály, the transplantation director of the Hungarian National Blood Transfusion Service, shared the latest Eurotransplant data with regard to Hungary, noting that 543 organs were removed from 180 brain-dead donors last year, while 30 living donors donated a kidney. He pointed out that one donor gives 31 years of life to society, thus based on the figures above Hungarian providers gave a total of 5544 years of life to patients with the transplants performed. Dr. Mihály emphasized that Hungary id the only country within the eight members of Eurotransplant where the number of deceased donors increased, as on average in Europe there was a 5% decline in 2019. The number of Hungarian brain-dead donors is 8.7% of the members of Eurotransplant, he added. He also noted that an organ travels on average 24 hours and 20 minutes from donation until it reaches the recipient patient, and this requires 500 phone calls and the organized work of some 100-120 people. Last year, 71 organs arrived in Hungary from abroad, while in total there were 440 organ transplants performed in the country, including 318 at Semmelweis University. 612 new patients were placed on the transplant waiting list. Last year, Hungarian doctors performed 266 kidney, 79 liver, 72 heart, 18 lung and 5 combined kidney-pancreas transplants. Dr. Mihály added that Semmelweis University is the only facility in Hungary that performs liver transplants, while 64 of the heart transplants took place at the Városmajor Heart and Vascular Center, which is the highest ever number in Hungary. The 8 heart transplants performed at the Gottsegen György Hungarian Institute of Cardiology is also a new record.
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Dr. Ferenc Rényi-Vámos, the director of the National Institute of Oncology’s (OOI) Thoracic Center and Semmelweis University’s Department of Thoracic Surgery, spoke briefly about the results of lung transplants n Hungary, pointing out that the first such operation was performed in 2015. He expressed his hope that with time, the number of lung transplants could also number in the thousands.
Dr. László Kóbori, the director of the Department of Transplantation and Surgery, talked about the details of the 5000th kidney transplant, revealing that the operation was performed on a 52-year-old man suffering from hypertension-caused kidney failure on February 9, 2020. The kidney arrived in Hungary via airplane through Eurotransplant within 17 hours with the work of 100 people, and was implanted in a 30-minute operation, following which it started functioning immediately. The patient is feeling well and was sent home 12 days after the operation, the director said. He stressed that post-transplant patients live full lives after recovering from the surgery.
Pálma Dobozi, Eszter Keresztes
Translation: Tamás Deme
Photos: Attila Kovács – Semmelweis University (The operating room photos are from earlier transplantation operations.)
