It also led the way in adult living-donor kidney transplants, together with the Hospital Clínic
It performed up to 25 heart transplants in adults, the same figure recorded in two other Spanish hospitals
Overall, Bellvitge Hospital ended the year 2021 as the second health centre with the most adult organ transplants
In 2021, Bellvitge University Hospital (HUB) was once again a national reference centre for transplants (mainly renal, cardiac and hepatic). This achievement was possible thanks to the generosity of donors and their families, as well as to the professionals’ expertise and their coordinated work. According to data published by the National Transplant Organisation (ONT), HUB ended the year as the second Spanish hospital performing the most adult organ transplants, up to 259. Only Valencia’s Hospital La Fe performed even more.
During the year 2021, Bellvitge University Hospital performed 193 kidney transplants. This figure qualifies the hospital, for the third year in a row, as the leading transplant centre in Spain for this speciality. Despite the impact of the second year of the pandemic, HUB professionals performed 45 more kidney transplants than in 2020 and were only three short of the highest figure in this area, reached in 2019.
Holding the leadership in renal transplantation and the virtual recovery of pre-pandemic figures was possible thanks to the cooperation between the Urology, Nephrology and Anaesthesiology services, as well as the nursing personnel. Dr Francesc Vigués, head of the Urology Service at Bellvitge Hospital, points out as key factors for this milestone both “the involvement of all urologists in transplant programme along with the experience achieved by all of them in complex kidney transplant surgery” and “the implementation of technical innovations such as robotic transplantation”.
Regarding kidney transplants in 2021, HUB had the highest number of living donors in Spain, as much as 40 (such as Hospital Clínic). This positive figure was achieved by the living kidney transplant team (led by Dr Anna Manonelles, from the Nephrology Service, and by Dr Lluís Riera, from the Urology Service) with the support of the nurse Maribel Díaz, and it was possible thanks to several factors. Dr Josep Maria Cruzado, head of the Nephrology Department, remarks as the key for this success “the networking among all the hospitals in the territory, which means being actively involved in the entire process of evaluation and monitoring of candidates for transplant, as well as the ability to transmit good information to them, for which the nurse role is essential.” He also points out the fact that “There is also a direct relationship between the promotion of home dialysis techniques and living donor kidney transplantation”.
It should also be noted that in 2021, HUB participated, together with the Hospital Clínic and the Portuguese Centro Hospitalar Universitário do Oporto, in the first triple exchange of the international cross-transplant programme in Southern Europe. This was a programme created to give a response to incompatible donor-recipient pairs. At the national level, HUB also participated in six of the seven kidney cross-transplants carried out in 2020.
Heart transplantation almost quadruples last year's figures
After 2020, a year profoundly marked by the impact of the pandemic, in 2021, heart transplantation regained the level of excellence achieved by HUB in 2018 and 2019. Thus, 25 adult heart transplants were performed, the same number recorded by the Hospital Universitario Vírgen del Rocío in Seville and the Hospital Universitario Gregorio Marañón in Madrid.
Last June, another important milestone was reached in the field of heart transplantation, with the first heart transplant performed by HUB using a heart from a donor in controlled asystole in Catalonia.
Dr Albert Miralles, head of the Heart Surgery Service at Bellvitge Hospital, considers “that the heart transplant programme at our centre has demonstrated its solidness, as we are positioned in first place in Catalonia and also in Spain, where we share figures with those centres that have transplanted the most”. He adds that this is not only a quantitative leadership, but “also in terms of the quality of the programme and with the aim of constant improvement, as has been the case with the beginning of donations in asystole”.
Liver transplantation, ready to regain ground
Despite the pandemic, HUB was able to maintain its liver transplant activity. Up to 41 liver transplants were performed in 2021. HUB’s Liver Transplant Programme, directed by Dr Laura Lladó, implemented various actions to increase this activity, such as training sessions in different hospitals to disseminate the new indications for this transplant or the incorporation of new ex situ perfusion systems to recover organs that were initially discarded. “With these and other proactive actions, we hope that once the pandemic is over, we can recover the level of liver transplants of the past years,” says Dr Laura Lladó.