Organ procurement and transplantation in Poland in 2024
Teresa Danek1,3, Anna Łęczycka1, Krystyna Antoszkiewicz1, Artur Kamiński1,4, Jarosław Czerwiński1,2.
1Department for Coordination of Collection and Transplantation of Cells, Tissues and Organs, Polish Transplant Coordinating Center Poltransplant, Warsaw, Poland; 2Department of Emergency Medicine, Medical University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland; 3Department of Surgical, Transplantation and Extracorporeal Therapy Nursing, Medical University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland; 4Department of Transplantology and Central Tissue Bank, Medical University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
In 2024, a total of 917 potential deceased organ donors were reported to the Polish Transplantation Coordination Center Poltransplant, of which 872 were reported from Polish hospitals and 45 reports from abroad. In 706 cases (77%), these were actual donors, while in 211 donors (23%), collection did not take place. The ratio: number of collected/number of deceased donors was for the whole country 3,7.
The number of reports increased by 159 compared to 2023. of the 388 hospitals with potential donation in Poland in 2024, only 41% (158 hospitals) were active. Among potential donors in 2023, the number of active donation hospitals is increasing by 10. In 706 cases (over 76%), organs were collected. In 2024, potential donors were reported from 159 hospitals in the country, 11 more than in the previous year. The number of the most active hospitals from which 10 or more actual organ donors were reported was 29 (12 hospitals more than in 2023). The largest number, 38 donors, was identified at the University Hospital of the Jagiellonian University Medical College in Krakow. Second in line was the University Clinical Center in Gdańsk (33 reports), a medical entity that for several previous years was the leader in reporting deceased donors. Another visible increase in activity was recorded at the Provincial Hospital in Kielce (28 reports in 2024 vs. 16 reports in 2023). In 86 cases (13%) the donation did not take place for medical reasons, and in 109 cases (17%) the donation was abandoned due to lack of authorization for the donation. The most common causes of death for deceased donors in the mechanism of brain death were vascular brain diseases of more than 69,2% of the donors (462) reported, and cranio cerebral trauma of (138) 21,5% of all cases. Other causes of brain death were poisoning, asphyxia, benign brain tumors. The age of donors ranged from 7 months to 81 years. The average age of deceased donors from whose organs were harvested was 48. The donors were predominantly male (431) vs. 236 female (% male: % female 65:35). Of a total of 706 donations from deceased donors, 603 (86%) were multi-organ donations. In 2024, the number of actual deceased organ donors was 667, giving 17.76 donors per 1 million residents. This rate was higher than in 2020 and 2021, but lower than in previous years.
Summarizing transplants from deceased donors: In 2024, of the 2193 organs harvested from deceased donors, 49 organs were not transplanted. A total of 2151 organs were transplanted. 1171 kidneys procured, 42 pancreases procured, 626 livers procured, 205 hearts procured, 149 lungs procured.