Turkey To Reach First Rank In Kidney Transplants In Europe

November 8, 2005

ANTALYA - The Akdeniz University Organ Transplantation Center, which carried out 210 kidney transplants in the first ten months of 2005, is about to reach the first rank in Europe.

Last year, Prague-based Organ Transplantation Center was ranked first among its peers by performing 199 renal transplant operations.

Akdeniz University Rector Prof. Dr. Mustafa Akaydin said on Tuesday at a news conference that the center had become one the most successful organ transplantation institutions in the world.

Highlighting importance of organ donation, Prof. Dr. Akaydin said, ''currently, 40 thousand people in Turkey have been waiting for a kidney. Every year, about 7 thousand patients with renal failure are added to this number. We have reached a 99 percent success in this year's operations.''

Meanwhile, Organ Transplantation Unit Chairman Associate Prof. Dr. Murat Tuncer said that their center provided Turkish and world medicine with new techniques.

''For the first time in Turkey, we performed a kidney-pancreas transplant. This operation was a milestone for patients suffering from both renal failure and diabetes. Also, we have succeeded in kidney transplant without tissue compatibility for the first time in Turkey. As a result, we have been able to double the number of kidney transplants and increase the ratio of transplants from cadaver, by 30 percent. We were awarded by important medicine institutions for our efforts,'' he added.

Copyright © 2005 Anadolu Agency.

This article posted Decembere 1, 2005.