Donations and transplants they continue to grow, but the waiting lists are still long. On the occasion of the twenty-seventh National Day for Organ and Tissue Donation, which was celebrated on 14 April, the National Transplant Center took stock of the situation on the number of donations and transplants carried out in Italy.
How many donations are recorded in Italy? Are they enough to ensure transplants for all patients who need them? Here are the data from the National Transplant Center (CNT), the technical-scientific body responsible for coordinating the National Transplant Network which is used by the Ministry of Health, the Regions and the Autonomous Provinces of Trento and Bolzano.
HOW MANY DONATIONS IN ITALY?
They are still around 8,000 patients on the waiting list: for this reason, it is necessary that more and more citizens give the consent to donation after death, especially by registering your “yes” when renewing your identity card. At this moment, in fact, around 6,000 patients are waiting for a new kidney, just under a thousand for a liver, around 700 for a heart, over 200 for a lung and the same number for a pancreas. Despite last year the number of organ donations has exceeded quota for the first time 2,000allowing the creation of almost 4,500 transplants (over 15% more than in 2022), the number of organs that become available is not yet sufficient to ensure transplants for all patients who need them.
LET’S SAY YES TO DONATION
To help citizens make informed choices, the Ministry of Health and the National Transplant Center have launched an important initiative in recent days: by April, new information displays (roll-ups, posters and posters) thanks to which citizens are waiting for renew your identity document will be able to receive verified and correct information on the donation, in order to make a donation conscious choice when your turn comes at the counter. The initiative will continue in the following months and by the end of the year there will be 1,500 registered offices and over 1,100 municipalities reached, with a territorial coverage of almost 40 million resident citizens. We remind you that, as well as at the time of renewing your identity card, you can also declare your yes to the donation by registering with AIDO, or at the appropriate ASL counters, and finally just by writing your wish on a sheet of paper simple dated and signed to carry with you.
«Scientific research in the field of transplants is going very fast, we have also demonstrated this in Italy with the great development of still-heart donation, but innovation is not enough», insists the director of the Giuseppe Feltrin National Transplant Center. «The hope of those waiting for an organ remains linked to the choice of donation, yet even today around a third of citizens who register their wishes choose to deny consent to the removal. Behind these understandable hesitations, however, there is sometimes little knowledge of the topic. This is why it is important to inform yourself to make an informed decision: donating organs is a safe choice, which costs nothing to those who make it but which saves the lives of those who benefit from it.”
IN WHICH CITIES DOES THEY DONATE THE MOST?
Once again it is Trent the most generous city in Italy in the collection of “yes” when renewing the identity card. These are some of the data that emerge from the fifth edition of the Gift Index, the report of the National Transplant Center which takes stock of the declarations of intention to donate organs and tissues registered in the registers of over 7 thousand Italian Municipalities during 2023.
For the third consecutive year, Trento stands out among the cities with over 100 thousand inhabitants, with an index of 71.07/100, a percentage of consensus of 78.1% and an abstention rate of 32%. Trento precedes Verona (which rises from fourth to second place) and Sassari, with Livorno at the foot of the podium. Among the other most virtuous large cities, Cagliari is fifth, Ferrara sixth, Padua seventh, Florence eighth and Perugia ninth, Bergamo tenth. The four largest cities are in decline: Milan is 24th (it was 16th the previous year), Turin goes from 29th to 31st, Rome from 32nd to 33rd while Naples remains stuck in 39th place out of 44.
«Our transplant system is cutting edge for the quality of the services provided and for the capacity for care and assistance, and is already projected towards the main technological and organizational challenges that are redesigning healthcare systems around the world. Our task is to accompany the introduction of these innovations always for the benefit of patients”, declares the Minister of Health Orazio Schillaci on the occasion of the Day. «And yet – continues the Minister – without the Yes to donation, even the most technologically advanced system would not be able to proceed with the transplant. And again: without that Yes, the efforts of our doctors, nurses and healthcare workers (to whom I renew my thanks) would be in vain. Donating is a natural choice, a gesture that can make the difference for those who are waiting for a transplant today. When we renew our identity card, we make a lifestyle choice and say yes to donation.”
AT WHICH AGE ARE YOU MOST AGREED TO DONATE?
This year’s edition of the Gift Index also highlights the propensity to donate in the various age groups at a regional level: the highest percentage of approval – 84.7% – is that recorded among the Sardinian citizens between 31 and 40 years old. It is precisely those in their thirties and forties who are the category that demonstrates the greatest generosity at a national level, with an average consensus of 73.8%. Following are the 41-50 year olds (73.1%) and the 51-60 year olds (71.3%): in both groups, at a regional level, it is the people from Trentino who declare their consent in higher percentages. The results of the collection among the were less good 18-30 year oldsprobably because less informed: among the youngest the national average consensus is 68.9% while those against are 31.1%. In this demographic category the highest percentage is that of “yes” registered among young Aosta Valley people (81.7%).
But it is after the age of 70 that the percentage of those who oppose donation tends to rise exponentially: the “no” are 41.5% among those aged 71-80 and as many as 55% among those over eighty. A fact conditioned, probably, by the erroneous belief that the organ donation at an advanced age is not possible. To date, the Transplant Information System hosts just under 19 million registered declarations: 13.5 million yes and 5.5 million no.
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