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This article summarizes comprehensive information about the current status of organ donation and transplantation in Poland.Reported statistical data of solid organs and vascularized composite allograft donation and transplantation from both deceased and living donors in Poland in 2015-2020 (presented in tables according to selected variables) are based on the national transplant registries, gathering information on donation and transplantation activity in medical centers involved in donation and transplantation programs in Poland.In 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, 529 potential deceased donors were referred to the Polish Transplant Coordinating Centre Poltransplant; 1310 solid organs from 393 actual deceased donors (10.2 per million population) were procured, mostly kidneys (758), livers (285), and hearts (157). Eighty percent were multiorgan retrievals (314). In 2020, 1231 organs procured from deceased donors and 59 organs from living donors were transplanted to 1236 recipients.This overview indicates that donation and transplantation activity from deceased donors in Poland decreased about 20% in 2020 compared with 2019, which is comparable with worldwide rates. As the unprecedented pandemic situation affected donation and transplantation procedures, there are measures that must to be taken to return to prepandemic donation and transplantation rates in both deceased and living transplant programs and then continue to improve in the years to come.

One of the important tasks of a modern hospital, in addition to treatment, prevention, and education, is the activity in the field of donating organs from deceased and living donors. In July 2010, the Polish Transplantation Coordination Center Poltransplant (the national transplantation organization and the authority responsible for organ donation and transplantation), thanks to the funds of the Ministry of Health, under the National Program for the Development of Transplant Medicine, initiated the project of building a network of coordinators by employing hospital transplantation coordinators in selected hospitals, where it is possible to identify potential deceased donors, perform the brain death diagnostic procedure, and where the conditions are met and it is possible to collect organs (they have an intensive care unit and operating theater in their structures). In Poland, these conditions are met by 388 hospitals with a donation potential.The aim of the work is to present the functioning of the system of transplant coordinators in Poland.The work presents the system of employment and tasks of transplant coordinators at various levels: hospital coordinators for donating organs from deceased donors, living donation and transplant coordinators, coordinators of hematopoietic cell collection and transplantation, central coordinators of Poltransplant, and organ procurement and transplant coordinators associated with transplant centers.

Background The long-term survival of 209 consecutive patients (mean age, 46 ± 15 years) from a single center with ≥1 diagnostic myocardial biopsy after heart transplantation was analyzed. Methods Patients were considered as C4d positive if a capillary staining (immunohistochemistry in paraffin samples) was observed in ≥1 myocardial biopsy. Data were analyzed according to pathologic consensus of antibody mediated rejection definition of C4d+ positivity: 2004 definition in group A and the 2013 definition in group B and compared with their respective controls, composed of patients who do not meet those criteria. Age, follow-up time, and number of biopsies were comparable between patients with C4d+ and controls in both groups. Follow-up was 100% complete with mean of observation time 2143 days. Results During the follow-up period, 62 patients died (group A: C4d+ 32% vs controls 29%; group B: C4d+ 36% vs controls 29% [ P = NS]). There were no differences in survival between patients with positive staining and without C4d+ staining when Kaplan-Meier survival curves were compared. Conclusions The presence of C4d positive staining in myocardial capillaries of heart biopsies of patients after heart transplantation, as an isolated finding, was not related to worse long-term survival.