600 waiting for organ donations

MORE than 600 people are on waiting lists for organ transplant and the figure is set to rise, according to the HSE’s organ donation and transplant tzar.

Professor Jim Egan, clinical lead at the National Office for Organ Donation and Transplantation, said the bulk of these patients — about seven out of 10 — are in need of kidney transplants, followed by liver, lung and heart.

He said the demand for transplants would continue to rise for a number of reasons, including greater access to dialysis and greater demand for liver transplants.

Yesterday, Beaumont Hospital, the national renal centre, said it had carried out 111 transplants in the first six months of 2011 compared to 121 in the whole of 2010. If this rate continues, the hospital expects to exceed its 2009 record of 172 kidney transplants.

This is an improvement on last year when a 36% drop in kidney transplants was recorded.

Prof Peter Conlon, Beaumont’s clinical director of nephrology, urology and transplantation, said there appeared to be a couple of main reasons for this year’s performance, including growing momentum in the living related donor (LRD) programme and the training of two more renal transplant surgeons in keyhole techniques.

He said up to 70 potential donors are likely to be evaluated under the LRD programme this year.

Prof Conlon said it was likely Beaumont would complete about 30 living donor transplants this year — up from 23 last year. Deceased donations have also increased. In 2010, there were 58 compared to 50 in the first six months of 2011.

Prof Egan said donations of hearts, livers and lungs have also been positive this year, but because of the substantial numbers awaiting transplant, there was no room for complacency.

He said Ireland continued to benefit from an organ donation-sharing scheme with Britain, under which Irish donor hearts are sent there, although Britain does not send donor hearts here.

However, Dr Egan said the arrangement gives Irish patients sent for transplant to Britain access to a far bigger organ recipient pool. Last year 70% of donated Irish hearts were sent abroad.

The Mater Hospital, which carries out heart and lung transplants, has carried out six double-lung transplants this year, all of them successful.

In addition, two new surgeons have been recruited, one of whom, Karen Redmond, specialises in the ex vivo technique, which allows surgeons the opportunity to assess and treat injured donor lungs while they are outside the body, to make them suitable for transplantation.

She is due to take up her position next week.

Earlier this year, Health Minister James Reilly said he would consider an “opt-out” programme to improve organ donation levels, where the public would have to specifically opt out of donation. The Programme for Government contains a proposal for “presumed consent”. However, Prof Egan said he believed most important step was setting up a national office to drive organ donation and transplantation.

* Beaumont has launched two videos along with supporting booklets on kidney transplantation which can be viewed at beaumont.ie/kidneyinfo.ie.