4,000th kidney transplant at the University Medical Center Freiburg
A 70-year-old patient received a very special gift on her birthday at the end of October: a new kidney. It was the 4,000th kidney to be transplanted at the Medical Center - University of Freiburg. The patient had been on dialysis for five years. The kidney was transplanted as part of the Eurotransplant Senior Program, a program in which recipients and donors are over 65 years old.
A successful kidney transplant enables a largely normal, independent life. As a rule, kidney transplant recipients can easily reconcile work and a full social life with their illness. Thanks to improved surgical techniques and better drugs that make the body's rejection reactions manageable, kidney transplantation has developed into a safe treatment method.
Living kidney donation at the Medical Center - University of Freiburg
80 percent of all transplants in Germany involve the kidney. It is the only organ that can be completely donated by a living person, as the kidneys are duplicated in the body. The first kidney was successfully transplanted at the University Medical Center Freiburg in 1968.
One focus of the Transplant Center at the University Medical Center Freiburg is living kidney donation. In 2004, the first living kidney donation with incompatible blood groups in Germany was successfully carried out in Freiburg. In the meantime, blood group incompatible living kidney donation has become established as a standard therapy in Germany.
Too few organ donations
The University Medical Center Freiburg offers almost the entire spectrum of organ transplants. In addition to kidneys, pancreases, hearts and lungs are transplanted here.
Despite the possibility of organ transplants, many people die every year because they do not receive an organ in time. "Too few people still have an organ donor card or have not discussed the subject with their relatives before they die," laments Dr. Bernd Jänigen, Head of the Transplant Center at the Department of General and Visceral Surgery at the Medical Center - University of Freiburg.
There are currently around 320 patients on the waiting list for a kidney transplant at Eurotransplant at the Medical Center - University of Freiburg alone. Each organ is allocated centrally by the non-profit Eurotransplant Foundation based in Leiden/Netherlands. Since 1967, Eurotransplant has been responsible for the procurement of all organs that are removed from deceased people for transplantation in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Croatia and Hungary.
Contact:
Dr. Bernd Jänigen
Head of the Transplant Surgery Section
Department of General and Visceral Surgery
Medical Center - University of Freiburg
bernd.jaenigen@uniklinik-freiburg.de
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