Ferrara is among the most generous cities in Italy for organ donation. With a gift index of 68.73/100, a percentage of approval of 75.8% and an abstention of 33.8%, it is in sixth place among those with over 100 thousand inhabitants. In view of the National Day for Organ and Tissue Donation which is celebrated on Sunday 14 April, the Emilia-Romagna Region is launching a series of information and awareness initiatives organized by the regional health service.
Emilia-Romagna marks a record-breaking 2023 with the highest number of transplants ever (585 and 325 donors). The event promoted by the Ministry of Health, now in its 27th edition, is an opportunity to reflect on the importance of this gesture of solidarity in the regional territory, where donors are constantly increasing and transplants continue to grow, thanks to a system widespread and well organised, coordinated by the Transplant Reference Centre.
This is confirmed by the data for the first quarter of 2024: as of March 31, 80 donors were reported (+2 compared to the same period in 2023) and 51 were used (-1); both transplants are growing, with 131 already carried out in 2024 (+2) and corneal harvesting: 563 (5 more).
“The day which is celebrated throughout Italy on Sunday – states the regional councilor for health policies, Raffaele Donini – is the opportunity to say thank you to all those who choose to donate to give new life to other people, making a gesture of extraordinary generosity. If we leave behind a record-breaking 2023 and start 2024 well too, it is thanks to the donors, but also to the voluntary associations and professionals of our regional donation and transplant network, which represents excellence at an international level. Important goals, which however push us to do even better: we therefore continue to keep our attention high, so that more and more people from Emilia-Romagna decide to donate”.
The record number of 585 transplants performed in 2023 confirms and reinforces the growth of recent years (there were 516 operations in 2022 and 493 in 2021); a result achieved thanks to the increase in potential donors reported by hospitals (325, +6.2% compared to the previous year), and the strength of the territorial network. Consequently, the number of donors actually used also increased (222, +7.7%), demonstrating the system’s ability to optimize available resources. Therefore, as many as 585 (+13.4%) organs were transplanted because they were deemed suitable also thanks to the innovative treatment techniques introduced in recent years.
In 2023, transplants from a still-heart donor (DCD) also increased, i.e. from a donor whose death is ascertained using cardiological and not encephalic criteria. As many as 70 reports of heart-stopped donation (17 more than in 2022) and 62 donors used (14 more) for a total of 122 organs removed and transplanted with this technique, decidedly more complex but capable of offering hope in more to waiting patients. In particular, heart transplants from DCD donations were performed for the first time in the region just last year: in total in 2023 the cardiac surgeons of the IRCCS Policlinico di Sant’Orsola completed four.
The credit for these numbers must be attributed both to the excellent performances of the transplant centers in Bologna, Modena and Parma and to the organization of the regional donation network coordinated by the Transplant Reference Centre. The enhancement launched in 2017 with the establishment of Cops (hospital procurement coordination) for the identification of organ and tissue donors has in fact increased the already high attention paid to the 23 donation sites spread throughout the Emilia-Romagna area. The numbers for 2023 are therefore due to the awareness and support activity carried out over the years by the Emilia-Romagna CRT, the widespread organization of the regional network and the high organ acceptance rate demonstrated by the transplant centers.
Emilia-Romagna has a gift index of 62.75/100: the percentage of approval is 70.8% and abstention is 40.6%, against a national average of 68.5% yes and of 41.8% of abstentions. Among the different age groups, the most generous are citizens between 51 and 60 years old (73.7% approval); 18-30 year olds stop at 67.9%, and in the case of those over 80 the consensus is 53.3%, probably – as reported in the report – due to the erroneous belief that organ donation at an advanced age is not possible.
