[ad_1]
The number of solid organ transplants dropped dramatically around the world between 2019 and 2020, researchers have found, highlighting the widespread impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on health services and patients.
As the pandemic escalated, hospitals were forced to delay potentially life-saving organ transplant surgery, due to resources such as intensive care beds needed for Covid patients and due to concerns, including knowing s ‘he was safe to treat transplant recipients in the hospital.
In July, an NHS Blood and Transplant report showed that in the year 2020-2021, transplant activity had fallen to around 80% of normal levels, with 3,391 transplants performed in the UK compared to 4 761 in the previous 12 months. A total of 487 patients died while awaiting a transplant, up from 372 in 2019-2020, while the service estimated that around 7,000 people were likely awaiting a transplant in the UK – a figure it says has been seen for last time in 2012-13.
Now, an international study, published in the journal Lancet Public Health and presented at the 2021 Congress of the European Society for Organ Transplantation (Esot), has shown that the total number of kidney, liver, lung and heart transplants from human donors fell 31% during the first wave of Covid-19 in 22 countries. The overall decline was almost 16% at the end of 2020, with more than 11,200 fewer transplants performed.
“Time trends have revealed a marked global reduction in transplant activity in the first three months of the pandemic, with losses stabilizing after June 2020, but declining again from October to December 2020,” wrote the ‘team.
The study looked at the number of transplants performed in each country until the end of 2020, from the time of the year when 100 cases of Covid were confirmed. These figures were then compared with those for the same period the previous year.
The results showed that the impact of the pandemic varied from country to country: while there was an overall drop of 9.86% in the number of organ transplants performed in Canada during this period. period, which corresponds to 227 grafts less; there was a decrease of 66.71% in Japan, where 1,413 fewer transplants were performed.
Kidney transplants were the most affected, with a decrease of 19.14% when all 22 countries are taken together, which translates to 8,560 fewer transplants.
The team said this was “likely due to the non-immediate nature of this surgery and the possibility of postponing procedures.”
“The data also suggests that live transplants have seen a larger decline than those from deceased donors, with the researchers noting that there may have been additional logistical and ethical challenges as well as concerns about the exposure of living donors to Covid. in the hospital. In some areas, living donor kidney and liver transplants have stopped, ”they added.
Researchers said that while some countries have seen significant reductions in the number of transplants, others have not been hit hard by Covid, meaning more analysis is needed at regional, national and global levels. to understand the differences.
[ad_2]
Source link