UAE achieves multi-organ transplant milestone
UAE’S NATIONAL TRANSPLANT COMMITTEE EXPECTED TO ANNOUNCE DETAILS ABOUT DONOR REGISTRY FOR THE COUNTRY SOON
The UAE’s first multi-organ transplant programme was announced yesterday at the Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, following the successful transplant of four types of major solid organs from deceased donors.
The multi-specialty hospital in the capital completed the country’s first full liver transplant, as well as its first lung transplant — both from deceased donors — earlier this month. These procedures followed the country’s first full heart transplant at the hospital in December 2017, and the facility’s first kidney transplant in September 2017.
“Our next step must be to support a robust culture of organ donation that makes it easy for people to gift their organs, Shaikh Abdullah Al Hamed, Abu Dhabi Department of Health chief, said.
T wo pioneering surgeries in Abu Dhabi this month have marked the UAE’s first full liver transplant and first lung transplant from deceased donors, doctors said yesterday.
The procedures have also cemented Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi’s status as the first multi-organ transplant facility in the country, with the hospital now having performed deceased donor transplants for four major solid organs – the kidneys, heart, liver and lungs.
The first full liver transplant in the UAE from a deceased donor was undertaken on February 1 to treat a 60-year-old Emirati man suffering from liver cirrhosis and failure.
His condition was further complicated by fluid accumulation and infection in the abdomen coupled with gastrointestinal bleeding.
Then, on February 11, a deceased donor provided a lung to a 53-year-old Emirati man afflicted by chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
The first recipients of these four solid organs from deceased donors have all been Emirati patients.
“These surgeries mark a milestone for organ transplantation in the country, following the changes to organ transplantation law. Each procedure marks a life saved and a community impacted,” said Dr Rakesh Suri, chief executive officer at Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi. Kidney transplants have been performed in Abu Dhabi since 2009. Organ donations from one family member to another were the primary method for these transplants, given differences in Islamic scholarly opinion about the permissibility of organ donation from deceased persons.
Donating organs
In recent years however, such opinion has come to favour organ donation from the deceased, and the UAE legalised donation from deceased donors in September 2016. The presidential decree came into effect in March 2017, to the relief of patients and medical professionals.
Dr Ali Al Obadli, chair of the UAE’s National Transplant Committee, stressed that the recent changes and milestones have opened up doors to better human health.
“One donor can save up to eight lives, or even more if we count tissue donations, and we are now working to finalise and announce details about a donor registry platform for the country. These details will be announced over the next month. As far as we see it, all UAE residents can register to donate organs, and the available organs will be available for any patient who needs it,” he said.
Since the UAE does not yet have a national donor registry, the family can, at present, convey the wishes of the deceased to donate organs to a hospital. As reported by Gulf News in 2013, a survey by Abu Dhabi’s first transplant facility, Shaikh Khalifa Medical City, had found that more than 60 per cent of respondents were willing to donate organs. “As it happens however, only one per cent of the general population, and 14 per cent of those who pass in the intensive care unit, can actually donate organs viable for transplantation,” Dr Al Obaidli added. The official also said he expected the UAE’s organ transplantation to mirror international volumes.
“On average, there are about 130,000 solid organ transplants around the world each year. 70 per cent of these are kidney transplants, followed by transplants of the liver, the heart and then the lungs,” he said.
According to Dr Bashir Sankari, chief of surgical subspecialties at Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, a country like the UAE with a population of eight million people can expect to see 400 candidates for kidney transplants a year. “There are about 1,200 patients on dialysis at present in the UAE, and given the huge drain on financial resources this presents, about a third of these patients could soon be referred for transplants. On average each year, the UAE can also expect to see 40 liver transplants, 20 heart transplants and 12 lung transplants each year,” he said.
Asked about insurance coverage for transplant procedures among expatriate patients, Dr Al Obaidli said he expected providers to keep pace with demand.