After 2,000 liver transplants in 30 years, the ACV is at the global apex

Coinciding with the celebration of World Transplant Day, which will take place on Friday, 27 February, Osakidetzatoday wished to recall a crucial milestone in the history of Basque health: the first liver transplant carried out in the Basque Country on 1 February 1996 at the University Hospital of Cruces, the first stone of a programme that has since made it possible to carry out almost 2,000 such interventions ; not for nothing, this hospital has become a reference in the Basque Country for liver transplant management.

The liver transplant team at Cruces University Hospital took stock of 30 years of activity this Thursday. The event was attended by Mikel Gastaka Mateo, clinical head of the Hepatobilic and Liver Transplant Surgery Unit, Javier Bustamante Schneider , doctor of the Hepatology Unit, and Kepa Esnaola Gangoiti , coordinator of the HUC Transplant Unit, representing the entire Transplant Unit of the University Hospital of Cruces.

As explained, Cruces University Hospital is one of the centers with the highest activity and the highest performance, and is among the three state centers with the highest number of liver transplants in the year, more than 70.

Adjusting to the years

According to Mikel Gastaka, as society has changed over the years, both organ donors and recipients have changed and have necessarily had to adapt. In the early years, donors were almost always young people killed in accidents.

However, by reducing road deaths, the group began to use its experience and new surgical and anesthetic techniques to transplant the liver of "older people," and by 2025 40% of donors were over 70 years of age, most of whom died from cerebrovascular disease.

The dissemination of donor profiles and treatments for certain types of hepatitis that can be cured has also made it possible to expand the types of transplanted patients, and among the milestones is that since 2019 there have also been interventions for oncological patients.

Solidarity, key

Currently, survival results at Cruces University Hospital are 96 percent within a year of transplantation, 91 percent within three years and 87 percent within five years.

He added that "the very high rate of transplantation in the Basque Country means that patients have to wait an average of 40 days to transplant, and currently there are only 5 people on the list", an "exceptional" fact at international level.

The medical team and patients who participated in the event wanted to highlight and thank the solidarity and contribution of the Basque organ donors, which has meant keeping the ACV among the communities with the highest donation rate in the State, with 64.3 donors per million inhabitants by 2025.