878 organs from 156 donors spur TN transplants in ’22

CHENNAI: With 156 donors donating 878 organs in Tamil Nadu last year, the State saw a rise in organ transplants last year, highest in the past five years.

At least 151 organ transplants were conducted in government hospitals in the State with donations from 51 organ donors while private hospitals conducted 722 transplants for Indian patients and five on international patients with organs from 105 donors.

Among these were 270 kidney transplants, the highest in the State, followed by 198 cornea transplants. As many as 134 liver transplants were conducted in Tamil Nadu in 2022. There were no donors for the pancreas and small bowels in 2022.

The number of organ donations remained significantly low due to the pandemic the preceding two years. However, the numbers have finally improved with a continuous campaign by the Transplant Authority of Tamil Nadu (Transtan).

Only 378 organ transplants were conducted in 2021 with 60 organ donors in the State, of which 13 transplants were in government hospitals and 365 private hospitals.

In 2020, about 368 organ transplants were held across the State, including 24 transplants in government hospitals and 344 transplants in private hospitals.

At least 768 transplants were conducted in 2019 with donations from 127 donors, while 845 transplants were done in 2018 after 140 donors donated the organs in the State.

The officials from Transtan said the pandemic was a major setback to the transplantation programme in the State, and since public awareness sessions were also not very active, the number of transplantation remained low.

COVID-19 infection also led to various misconceptions among the people that also contributed to the drop.

“Currently, the number of transplants has improved and we hope it will further increase,” said an official.