Organ Transplantation

About 5,200 organ transplants are performed in Turkey every year, and this number is growing every day. The number of organ transplants in our country continues to grow;

• Organ transplant teams have world-class achievements,
• Our institutions, especially private hospitals, are equipped with the most modern and high-tech equipment, and this equipment is constantly being updated.
• We can list the reasons why the law on organ and tissue transplantation is clear, and organ transplantation centers, especially the Ministry of Health, receive sufficient support.

As of October 2022, 17,000 organ and tissue transplants received from 16,821 living donors have been performed in Turkey. In our country, the number of cadaver donors has been announced at the level of 305 in 2021 and 234 in 2022.

Organs for successful transplantation:

– Liver
– Kidneys
– Pancreas
– Heart
– Lungs
– Intestines
– Cornea
– Middle Ear
– Skin
– Bones
– Bone marrow
– Heart valves
– Connective tissue, skin, muscles

What are the stages of organ transplantation?

* Operations on the receiver and transmitter begin simultaneously in 2 different operating rooms. The organ to be transplanted from the donor is extracted by the most appropriate surgical method and attached to the recipient.

• In cases where there are no complications after surgery, the donor is referred to the service.
• Recipient patients after surgery are placed in the intensive care unit for preventive purposes and are monitored in the intensive care unit for 1-2 days. After that, the recovery tracking process begins.

* The donor can be discharged from the hospital within 4-7 days.

* The recipient can be discharged from the hospital within 7-10 days.

Who can be a living organ donor?

• Relatives up to the 4th generation between the recipient and the donor – family ties between generations. In short, the source of organs can be the mother, father, brother, sister, aunt, uncle of the candidate, his recipient spouse or their children.
• Unrelated persons who are not among the listed relatives who want to donate their organ to the recipient without any financial benefit and have received the approval of the decommunized Ethics Committees of the Ministry of Health.

Decommunization between which blood groups can be carried out?

• Blood group 0 can only accept organs from blood group 0, it can give organs to all blood groups (0, A, B and AB).
• Blood group A can receive organs from blood groups A and 0, and can also give organs to blood groups A and EC.
• Blood group B can extract organs from blood groups B and 0, as well as deliver organs to blood groups B and AB.
• Blood group AB can accept organs of all blood groups (0, A, B and AB), it can give organs only to blood group AB.

Rh factor is not required for organ transplantation.

How is medical fitness determined?

* The recipient and the donor are examined by doctors of pulmonology, cardiology, psychiatry, nephrology and general surgery, as well as examinations are carried out at the request of doctors.

• Patients may need angiography if a cardiologist needs it.
• Immunological studies are conducted between the recipient and the donor in order to decommunize the recipient’s blood for the presence of antibodies to the donor. If antibodies are present in the recipient’s blood, he may need to undergo PLASMAPHERESIS. This decision is entirely up to the doctors.

With the exception of the above procedures, X-ray examinations and blood tests are performed on the recipient and the donor. As a result of these examinations, it may be necessary to prescribe additional treatment to the recipient, donor or both patients. These parts are carried out by informing patients in detail.

The plasmapheresis procedure is a process in which antibodies present in the recipient’s blood are attempted to be removed from the recipient’s blood using a number of solutions of medical equipment. It cannot be applied to every patient.

• After making a decision on the acceptability of transplantation as a result of inspections and analyses conducted at Organ Transplantation Centers, the Ethics Committee sends to the Organ Transplantation Centers a dossier prepared by the organ transplantation coordinators working at the transplantation center.

What should be in the Ethics Committee’s dossier?

• Apostilled copies of the recipient’s and sender’s passports,
• The conclusion of the psychiatric examination, compiled by the Center for Transplantation of Donor Organs.

* Apostilled documents on the place of residence of the recipient and the donor

• Photos, videos, correspondence records from the former apartment, confirming his testimony.

* The recipient and the Donor are not required to give consent.

• If the donor is married and will not come to our country with his legal spouse, it is necessary to obtain detailed consent from the spouse in the presence of a notary.
• Statements of the recipient and sender

Together with the aforementioned documents, the organ transplantation coordinator submits an application to the Ethics Committee.

The purpose of organ transplantation is to return a person to a normal, active and productive life. The goal is to bring both the patient and the donor back to their preoperative level.

Transplants performed in Turkish medical centers have a higher success rate compared to generally accepted success rates.

The organ transplantation procedure is when you begin to understand that by law all patients are the same, but treatment, recovery time in the postoperative period depend on additional diseases and age.