Staff at a hospital in Granada transport an organ donated for transplanting. sur

Spain accounted for 22 per cent of organ donations in the EU last year

The country also accounted for 5% of donations in the world, even though it only represents 0.6% of the population

EUROPA PRESS

Madrid

Monday, 12 September 2022 | Updated 13/09/2022 10:58h.

In 2021, Spain accounted for 22% of organ donations in the European Union and 5% of those in the world, even though the country represents only 10.6% of the EU population and 0.6% of the world population.

The figure comes from the latest report by the World Donation and Transplant Observatory, which has been managed by the National Transplant Organisation for the past 16 years as a collaborating centre with the WHO. The data is reported every year in the EU Council’s Transplant Newsletter.

Last year 139,040 transplants were carried out in the 79 countries which are included in the newsletter. Of these, 89,244 were kidneys (37% from living donors), 33,105 livers, 8,232 heart, 6,301 lung, 1,986 pancreas and 172 intestine.

The numbers of kidney, lung, liver, heart and pancreas transplants increased notably in 2021.

Transplants in Spain

Spain achieved a total of 102.4 transplants per million of population in 2021, a figure only exceeded by the USA with 126.8.

Last year in this country there were 1,905 deceased donors and 324 living donors, and 4,781 transplants were carried out: 2,950 kidneys, 1,078 livers, 302 hearts, 362 lungs, 82 pancreas and 7 intestines.

An 8% increase in the EU

The effects of the pandemic have also been patent in donation and transplant activity in the European Union. There were 8,671 donors and 19.5 deceased donors per million of population in the EU, bringing the total of organ transplants last year to 26,370, which corresponds to 59.2 per million of population.

Organ donation rose by 6% and transplants by 8% in the European Community last year, compared with 2020.

With regard to waiting lists, on 31 December 2021 the number of patients awaiting an organ transplant in the EU had risen to 52,355. Data from the World Observatory shows that 10 patients in the EU who are waiting for a transplant die every day.