Transplant Surgery

Organ transplantation is the moving of an organ from one body to another or from a donor site to another location on the person's own body, to replace the recipient's damaged or absent organ.

Organs and/or tissues that are transplanted within the same person's body are called autografts. Transplants that are recently performed between two subjects of the same species are called allografts.

• Doctors must be careful to match a donated organ to the correct recipient.
• The organ must be a suitable size, age and it must match the recipient’s tissues.
• There is a shortage of donors.
• The families of potential dead donors may be unwilling to agree to their loved one’s organs being used for transplants.
• Some people believe that giving or receiving a transplant is wrong.
• The recipient’s immune system is likely to reject a transplanted organ.
• Immuno-suppressant drugs are given to the recipient (and must be taken for the rest of their life).
• There is an increased chance of getting infections due to the immune response against pathogens being substantially reduced.

Active transplant list:      Number of people

• Kidney                        5053
• Pancreas                    15
• Kidney/pancreas        182
• Pancreas islets           29
• Heart                          250
• Lungs                         319
• Heart/lung                  15
• Liver                           545
• Intestinal                     7
• Other                          47

Total                                6462

• In the last year 1,300 people either died whilst on the waiting list or became too sick to receive a transplant.
• Fewer than 5,000 people die in circumstances where they can become a donor.
• More than 3,100 lives being transformed through a transplant in 2012/13.

Opt‐in donation strategies means no one's organs are used without their consent.

Opt‐out donation strategies mean that everyone is treated as a donor unless they specifically refuse.

Both strategies allow individuals (or their next of kin) power to determine what happens to their cadaveric organs; the difference between them is the ‘default’ treatment of someone who has expressed no wish either way.