According to data from the Instituto Nacional Central nico Coordinador de Ablación e Implante (INCUCAI) last year, 1,543 patients on the waiting list received organ transplants from deceased donors and 246 from living donors, which is a 40 percent increase compared to 2020. After that, 1,392 corneal transplants were performed, which together with organ transplants gave a total of 3,181 for the year ended.

For further information, in 2021, 1,164 kidney transplants, 418 liver, 107 heart, 36 renopancreas, 35 lung, 16 hepatorenal, 5 cardiorenal, 3 pancreatic, 2 hepatointestinal, 2 cardiopulmonary and 1 intestinal transplants were performed, as well as 1,392 corneal transplants. Of the total number of transplants, 203 were children (under 18 years).

This transplant was made possible thanks to the completion of 1,004 donation processes, 629 organ donation processes and 375 corneas, which were carried out across the national territory: Buenos Aires (302), Misiones (98), Mendoza (96), Santa Fe (88), Córdoba (75) , Autonomous City of Buenos Aires (68), Corrientes (53), Entre Ríos (41), Tucumán (39), Neuquén (23), Jujuy (23), Santiago del Estero (20), Salta (18 ), Río Negro ( 16), San Juan (8), Tierra del Fuego (7), Chaco (6), La Rioja (5), Formosa (5), Chubut (4), La Pampa (4), San Luis (2), Catamarca (2) and Santa Cruz (1).

The President of INCUCAI, Carlos Soratti, said that “in these difficult years the decision of the Ministry of Health of the Nation through INCUCAI is to support donation activities to continue to offer transplant opportunities to people on waiting lists. This goal was achieved thanks to the work and efforts of health systems across the country. That is why our horizon is to move forward in addressing the level of transplant optimization before the pandemic”.

In this regard, the president of INCUCAI highlighted cooperation with various regions of the country to promote the hospital procurement model, in order to increase the capacity to produce organs and tissues for transplantation. “In the last months of the year the activities were similar to the last months of 2019, the year in which historical records of donor and transplantation were achieved,” he said, adding that even in the context of the pandemic, 2021 was “the third year with the most organ transplants from donors already died in the history of our country”.

Soratti also highlighted the implementation of the National Corneal Transplant Waiting List Completion Plan, which aims to reduce waiting times for patients requiring transplants. “One of the goals we set was to achieve zero waiting lists for blind people, and in the first two months of implementation of this Plan, waiting lists for corneas for blind patients have been reduced by 70 percent. to allow all pediatric patients who are waiting for corneal transplantation”.

The number of organ donors per million population nationally in 2021 is 13.7, four points more than that achieved in 2020. The provinces with the highest organ donor rates are Corrientes (30.1 Donors Per Million Population), Jujuy (24, 4 DPMH), Misiones (22 DPMH), Mendoza (19,9 DPMH), Autonomous City of Buenos Aires (19,5 DPMH), Tucumán (18.7 DPMH), Santa Fe (17 , 4 DPMH), Córdoba (16, 8 DPMH), Neuquén (16.4 DPMH) and Rio Negro (14.5 DPMH).

Bone marrow transplant

With regard to bone marrow transplants, it should be noted that in 2021 the historical mark of the Argentine donor has been exceeded. A total of 71 donor cells were collected from our country, the highest number since the creation of the National Registry of Hematopoietic Progenitor Cells of INCUCAI in 2003.

With the intervention of the Registry, 71 bone marrow donation processes were performed, 33 for patients from Argentina and 38 for foreigners living in the US (10), Spain (8), France (5), Italy (4), Uruguay (3), Turkey (3), Germany (2), Australia, Belgium and Chile. In this way, the 60 Argentine donors reached in 2019 were exceeded.

Similarly, cells for CPH transplantation were received from abroad for 69 Argentine patients from 14 countries (Germany, USA, Italy, UK, Netherlands, Turkey, Chile, Brazil, Spain, France, Israel, Croatia, Portugal, and Sweden).

In 2021, 105 Argentine patients received marrow transplants from donor registries.

Organ, tissue and cell transplants are made possible thanks to donors and the work and commitment of health systems across the country to achieve them.