Open AccessDonor Shortage in Germany: Impact on Short- and Long-Term Results in Liver Transplantation
Author(s) -
Gerd Otto
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
visceral medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.598
H-Index - 17
eISSN - 2297-475X
pISSN - 2297-4725
DOI - 10.1159/000493891
Subject(s) - economic shortage , scarcity , transplantation , organ donation , waiting list , german , donation , medicine , liver transplantation , organ transplantation , intensive care medicine , surgery , political science , economics , geography , law , linguistics , philosophy , archaeology , government (linguistics) , microeconomics
With slightly more than 10 donors per million inhabitants, Germany belongs to the underdeveloped countries in Europe with regard to organ donation. Organ shortage is supposed to promote the usage of organs which are declined in case of less pronounced scarcity. This may result in deteriorated graft and patient survival. In the light of this situation, data on the centers' procedures and outcome of liver transplantation in Germany is presented based upon reports of Eurotransplant, the German Institutions for Quality Assessment, and the Deutsche Stiftung Organtransplantation. Surprisingly, along with an increasing organ scarcity, the outcome during waiting time and after transplantation has been improved. The 1- and 3-year patient survival improved by 7 and 9%, respectively. Reasons for this unexpected development are discussed.