Annual organ transplants in India rises by more than three times in last 10 years

New Delhi, Aug 3 (PTI) Organ transplants recorded in a year have more than tripled in the last decade, with kidney transplants accounting for a majority of them, according to the annual report of the NOTTO released on Saturday.

In 2023, a total of 18,378 transplants were carried out in India, which ranks third in the world in organ transplant and second in corneal transplant, the report by the National Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (NOTTO) said.

The total number of transplants comprising, both transplants from living donors and those from deceased donors, in the country was recorded at 4,990 in 2013.

India achieved another milestone in 2023 -- more than 1,000 deceased organ donations in a year for the first time, breaching its record from last year, NOTTO said.

The number of deceased-donor transplants has increased from 837 in 2013 to 2,935 in 2023.

According to data, the number of kidney transplants in 2023 stood at 13,426 while liver transplants were at 4,491, heart transplants at 221, lung transplants at 197 and pancreas transplants at 27.

Among living donors, the number of females (9,784) was almost double the number of males (5,651) in 2023.

However, among deceased donors, males outnumbered females at 844 compared to 255.

The total number of living donors in 2023 was 15,436 while deceased donors stood at 1,099.

Telangana accounted for the highest number of deceased donors in the year at 252, followed by both Tamil Nadu and Karnataka at 178, Maharashtra at 148, Gujarat at 146 and Delhi at 66.

The number of transplants to foreigners was recorded at 1,851 with most of them being in Delhi at 1,445.

The number of heart transplants increased from 30 in 2013 to 221 in 2023. Heart transplants were higher in 2018 at 241.

Tamil Nadu topped the deceased donor transplants at 595 followed by Telangana (546), Karnataka (471), Maharashtra (426) and Gujarat (421) in 2023.

Delhi-NCR has the most number of living-donor transplants at 4,275, followed by Tamil Nadu (1,833), Maharashtra (1493), Kerala (1,376) and West Bengal (1,021).

"...the organ donation rate in our country still continues to be less than 1 per million population," the report said.

There is a need to promote organ donation from deceased persons to take care of the huge organ requirement due to the increasing burden of non-communicable and lifestyle diseases leading to a high number of patients suffering from end-stage organ failure disease, the report stated.

Organs are best donated from brain stem dead persons before the heart stops beating and there are many myths and misconceptions regarding organ donation which need to be taken care of, it said.

The condition of state domicile for registration of recipients of deceased-donor organs for transplantation has been removed and states have been asked to implement this reform, it said.

Also, the upper age limit for registration of recipients of deceased-donor organs has been removed i.e. now, a person of any age can register.

Also, no fees will be charged for the registration of patients receiving deceased-donor organs. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has also issued a circular that for facilitating organ donation in medico-legal cases, round-the-clock facility for post-mortem may be made available in the hospitals, having adequate infrastructure, it said.

Besides, to develop a uniform organ transport policy for the country, consultations were held with seven ministries coordinated by NITI Aayog -- Civil Aviation, Housing and Urban Affairs, Railways, Transport and Highways, Ports Shipping and Waterways, Home Affairs and Defence, the report said.

Standard Operative Procedures have been drafted, which prescribe that every concerned ministry will have a nodal officer and State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (SOTTO) will coordinate with a nodal officer to facilitate organ transport, it said.

No screening of organs will be done at the airport, the report added. PTI PLB SKY SKY