2024 Slight Decline in Organ Transplants in Austria

In 2024, 579 transplants were performed with organs from deceased donors, while 58 transplanted organs came from living donors. After significant declines during the COVID-19 pandemic, a largely constant picture has now emerged in the year-on-year comparison, according to Gesundheit Österreich GmbH (GÖG) to the APA.

According to the annual report published online by the transplant organization office (ÖBIG-Transplant) located at GÖG, in 2024, 311 deceased individuals were reported as potential organ donors in Austria, with at least one organ being removed from 166 of them and implanted in patients on the waiting list. On average, there were three organs per donor. Regionally, the most organ donors were in the state of Carinthia with 36.9 per million inhabitants. Tyrol with 27.1 and Salzburg with 22.7 donors followed behind.

Organ Transplants: More Patients on Waiting Lists

At the end of 2024, a total of 848 patients were on the waiting lists for an organ. In 2023, there were still fewer with 810. 660 people were waiting for a kidney. The waiting time until a suitable donor organ was identified varied from organ to organ. While the median wait for a kidney was 40.6 months from the first dialysis or 16.3 months from being placed on the waiting list, the waiting times for other types of organs were significantly less than a year. Kidneys were the most frequently transplanted organs in the previous year (319).

One way to express opposition to organ and tissue donation after death during one's lifetime is to register in the objection register. In 2024, a total of 4,747 people registered in the register and 318 were removed from it. The total number of people registered by the end of 2024 was 66,192.

Increase in Stem Cell Transplants

The number of stem cell transplants increased from 577 to 609 in the year-on-year comparison. For around 90 percent of patients in Austria waiting for a stem cell donation, a foreign donor was identified in 2024. The median search duration was 23 days.

In international comparison based on the 2023 data, Austria is in the middle range in terms of organ availability. For lung transplants, Austria had the highest frequency among the comparison countries, with 13.6 transplants per million inhabitants.

(APA/Red)

This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.