Doctors are concerned about the declining number of organ donations. According to the experts, the reasons are the high stress caused by the Corona crisis and the lack of staff in many clinics. In order to counteract the downward trend, the criteria for organ donation have been adjusted – also with regard to Corona.
The situation for people on the waiting list remains dramatic: only 710 people had their organs released for transplantation after their death by the end of October, 65 fewer than in the same period last year, as the German Foundation for Organ Transplantation (DSO) reported at its annual congress in Frankfurt. The total number of organs removed that were reported for transplantation also fell from 2,420 to 2,178.
The DSO looks “with great concern” at the current situation. In the first quarter there had been an unexpected drop in organ donation figures by almost 30 percent. In the last few months there has been “a certain recovery and stabilization”, said DSO board member Axel Rahmel. “Overall, however, the situation remains extremely depressing, especially for patients on the waiting lists and their families.”
According to the DSO, the reasons for the decline are the burden on the healthcare system from the pandemic and the lack of staff in many clinics. Because transmission is almost impossible with careful selection, organs from corona-positive donors can now also be transplanted. Since this has been possible, there have been 39 donors with corona infections in Germany. 114 organs were removed from them, as reported by the DSO. “There was not a single transmission of a Sars-CoV-2 infection from the donor to the recipient,” said Rahmel.
At first, people who were corona positive, contact persons of infected people and those returning from risk areas were excluded from organ donation. But then, according to the DSO, experiences from abroad showed that the risk of transmission was lower than feared. In many countries, the criteria were then relaxed. “In fact, so far only very few cases have become known in which there was a transmission from the donor to the recipient – and these only in connection with a lung transplant,” said Rahmel.
In May 2022, the German Medical Association and the German Transplantation Society also adjusted the acceptance criteria for donors in Germany. Only organ donors with a severe course, whose organs are so damaged that they are no longer suitable for transplantation, are now excluded. According to Rahmel, “extreme restraint” still applies to lung transplants.