Organ Donation in Greece Highest in 15 Years But Still Lags EU Average

Greece has achieved a significant increase in the number of organ donations in 2023 but still lags far behind other European countries.

According to data released on Wednesday by the National Transplantation Organization (EOM), organ donation and transplants have shown a steady upward trend in recent years, reaching in 2023 the highest number of deceased donors in the last 15 years and having doubled these donors in just three years.

In 2023, 87 donor families consented to the donation of their organs, giving life to over 200 patients.

The donors contributed to 138 kidney transplants at the General Hospital “Laiko”, General Hospital “Hippocrates”, General Hospital “Evangelismos”, PGN Patras and PGN Ioannina, 40 liver transplants at the General Hospital “Hippocrates” and GNA “Laiko” and 14 heart transplants and 12 lungs at the Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center.

Especially lung transplants, a newly established transplant program that started in 2020, show a satisfactory dynamic with very good patient results, EOM says.

At the same time, a record number of living kidney donors was set in 2023. Specifically, 101 living donors, from the family and friends of dialysis patients, proceeded to donate a kidney.

The majority of these operations were performed in the Kidney Transplant Unit of the GNA “Laiko” (73 transplants) while living kidney transplants were also successfully performed in the other domestic Kidney Transplant Units.

Regarding transplants of primitive hematopoietic cells (bone marrow) from an unrelated donor, the upward trend that began a decade ago continues steadily, offering more and more hope of salvation to patients with hematological diseases.

In 2023, 141 hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) transplants were performed on patients in our country, including 31 children.

“For the 3rd year in a row, we have achieved an improvement in the indicators related to organ donation and transplants, as well as primitive hematopoietic cells, which proves the multifaceted and systematic effort made in the field of transplants, with the participation of all involved bodies, the support of the state and the trust of the citizens,” noted the president of the EOM, Georgios Papatheodoridis.

Greece lags behind in organ donations

“This improvement allows us to be optimistic that our country can improve further and get closer to European standards as long as the effort and support of the state in the Transplantation System continues. Thus, we have reasonable hopes to believe that 2024 will be an even better year for the benefit of our patients and their relatives,” he said.

Despite the increase in organ donors, Greece lags far behind other EU countries. According to the latest comparative statistics, Greece is only above Bulgaria, Cyprus and Romania.

In 2022, Spain had the highest rate of deceased donors in Europe. The rate of organ donation, including donation after brain death (DBD) and after cardiac death (DCD), was 46.7 per million population.

Portugal had the second highest rate of deceased organ donation in Europe after increasing to a rate of 31.5 per million population.

Luxembourg experienced the largest increase in the rate of organ donation between 2021 and 2022, going from 3.3 to 13.3 donors per million population.

Related: First Living-Donor Liver Transplant Successfully Completed in Greece