Current Affairs Czech medicine celebrates 40 years since first successful organ transplant

Things have come on hugely since then; today the country's transplant programme is comparable to those of the United States and western Europe in terms of quality, quantity, and survival rate. And, as transplant specialist Dr. Stefan Vitko tells Dita Asiedu, the Czech Republic is actually ahead when it comes to waiting time:

"The average waiting time for kidney transplantation is less than twelve months. There are people who wait a few weeks because the waiting time is related to biological factors involving the donor and the recipient. It's a kind of lottery."

How do Czechs feel about donating their organs? Are they a nation of donors?

"Organ donation, or rather deceased organ donation, mainly depends on the way it is organised and the law. Both are quite developed in this country. There is a network of donor hospitals and we are working with them very closely - on a daily basis. The other thing is that there is the presumed consent. So these two things are also quite favourable for organ transplantation."

The first transplant was conducted forty years ago. How have things changed since then?

"Enormously. First of all, the one-year graph survival at the time was around 20 percent. Today, it is over 95 percent. The main achievement is in immunosuppressive treatment. We use a different immunosuppressant that is safer and more powerful and more effective."

What important organs have not yet been transplanted?

"The small bowel. We are now in the experimental stage. We are experimenting on animals to hopefully conduct the small bowel transplant next year."

A very interesting thing is that China says it has conducted the first ever successful penis transplant...

"We transplant vital organs that you need to live. We do not need a penis to live so we do not deal with this kind of a transplant."