The number of solid organ transplants descended during the first wave of the pandemic by 31% compared to the previous year, according to a global study presented at the Congress of the European Society of Organ Transplants (ESOT, for its acronym in English),
It is
According to the calculations of the authors, this fall of transplants is more than 48,000 years of life lost.
The investigation, which has been published in The Lancet Public Health, analyzed the data from 22 countries on four continents and reveals that, in some cases, the fall in the transplant activity was up to 90%.
In Spain, one of the countries analyzed, the reduction was 24.02%.
The greatest decrease affected kidney transplants, which was around 40% of living donor and 12% donor donor.
As for the liver, the decreases were 33 and 9%, respectively.
On the other hand, lung grafts decreased by 17%, while those of heart only reduced 5%.
Research highlights how some countries managed to maintain their transplant rate while others suffered serious reductions.
Thus, the lowest reductions occurred in Switzerland (1.34%), the United States (4.13%) and Norway (7.12%), while the most dramatic falls occurred in Japan (66.71%),
Argentina (60.91%) and Chile (54.02%).
Olivier Aubert, Professor of the Translational Research Center for Paris Organ Transplants and Principal Author of Labor, considers that “the first wave of Covid-19 had a devastating effect on the number of transplants in several countries, increasing waiting lists and
Producing a great loss of years of life “.
For his part, Alexandre Loupy, director of the Parisian and Last Author Center of the Study, affirms that “live donor transplants, those who most reduced, require more resources and planning than those of deceased donor, which makes them extremely difficult to
Carry out during a situation in which resources have been limited and professionals are overloaded. In addition, there was also greater ethical concern for the welfare and safety of donors. ”
“It is clear that there have been many indirect deaths associated with the COVID-19, and our study confirms that the pandemic has had harmful consequences for many medical specialties,” Launta Lupy.
The analysis estimates that 37,664 years of life have been lost among patients waiting for a kidney;
7.370, in the case of a liver;
1.799, in lung, and 1.406, in heart.
According to Aubert, beyond the global reduction in transplant activity, some countries and regions have managed to carry out the processes despite the greatest challenge submitted by the pandemic.
These findings require more analysis at regional, national and global levels to understand why transplant reductions have occurred or not “.
In his opinion, “understanding how different countries and health systems have responded to COVID-19 can facilitate improving preparation before a pandemic and how to safely maintain transplant programs.”
To facilitate this understanding of temporary trends and the consequences of pandemic worldwide and at all levels, the authors have created a free access panel that presents the data interactively for the activity of transplants and cases of Covid-
19.
