Search

The program aims to build and develop a high-quality donation system at the hospital and national level. Thirty coordinator posts for the transplantation of kidneys from living donors (LDs) were created. The coordinators' tasks were identified as determining or excluding the possibility of LD donation for kidney transplantation for every potential kidney recipient referred to the waiting list, qualifying potential LDs, supervising health monitoring for LDs and kidney recipients, and education and promotion of transplantation from LDs. The coordinators' reports and verification of data in the national transplant register from June 1, 2018 to November 30, 2019 were analyzed. The study was conducted according to principles of the Declaration of Helsinki, and the Declaration of Istanbul participation was on a voluntary basis. Information on possible LDs was obtained from 707 (43%) of the 1630 potential recipients entered on the waiting list. In 373 cases there was no potential LD; 16 recipients did not give consent for kidney transplantation from a LD; for 318 recipients, 340 potential LDs were identified; 90 potential LDs were rejected at the initial stage for medical reasons; 60 potential donors were rejected at further stages of the qualification process; 3 persons resigned from donation; and 23 recipients were transplanted from deceased donors. Kidneys from 73 LDs were qualified and transplanted. On November 30, 2019, 91 potential donors were awaiting further qualification. As part of the program, 27 potential pairs for paired kidney exchange were reported to Poltransplant (17 pairs with positive HLA crossmatch, 10 with incompatible blood groups). The creation of posts for coordinators for LD kidney transplantation in centers that qualify for LD kidney transplantation enabled systematic monitoring of donation potential, which led to an increase in the number of LD kidney transplants in 2019. Making full use of donation potential should significantly increase these numbers in the coming years. • The rate of kidney transplantation from living donors (LDs) in Poland is still very low (1.3 per million population). • The main goal of the program was to build and introduce a quality system of kidney donation from LDs at the hospital level. • The tactical objectives of the program were to build a national network of coordinators for LD kidney transplantation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Despite the good overall condition of Polish transplantation medicine there is a shortage of organs for transplantation. Health care is also in a stage of development with problems including insufficient funding and lack of personnel. In 2015 the number of deceased organ donors in Poland was 526, which was distinctly lower than in 2014 when it reached 594. The aim of this paper was to collect, elaborate on, and summarize the opinions of transplant coordinators regarding the decrease of donation indicators in Poland. Materials and Methods The opinions of the transplant coordinators were collected during training meetings and questionnaires performed in 2016. The questionnaires targeted coordinators of active hospitals (above 5 retrievals a year) and less active donor hospitals. Results and Discussion Transplant coordinators indicated a number of factors that influence donor hospital activity, such as changing roles of intensive care units, changes in hospital flow of patients in critical condition, lack of nurses and anesthesiologists resulting in work overload, changes in forms of doctors' employment, low basic income of health professionals, difficulties in determination of brain death, decrease in engagement of transplant centers in cooperation with donors' hospitals, inadequate in-hospital training meetings, undermining of authority of doctors and medical personnel, change of attitude towards transplantation medicine (treated as profitable, regular specialty), insufficient funding of hospitals and personnel for deceased donor recruitment, and disobeying the rules of personnel remuneration for their engagement in donation and retrieval. Conclusions Analyzing the opinions of the coordinators, we can state the following: 1. support of the hospital or hospital unit management is crucial for effective donation programs, 2. there is a need to build and implement a hospital quality systems covering each stage of donor recruitment as well as hospital trainings, 3. there should be a transplant coordination team rather than a single coordinator, 4. transplantation centers should maintain good cooperation with donor hospitals, and 5. intensive care unit personnel identification with their own hospital, which is less likely in the case of "locum" employment, is one of the major factors supporting donation programs. Highlights • Hospital transplant coordinators' opinions on decreasing number of deceased donations give several reasons for this problem: ○ lack of support from hospital management ○ lack of hospital organ donation quality systems ○ changes in employment patterns of the staff (shifting from regular employment to “locum” system), no regular trainings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kidney transplant (KTx) is the best method of renal insufficiency treatment. In dialyzed patients, mortality rises with the time on dialysis. There is a continuing shortage of organs for transplantation, hence a propensity to expand the donor pool with expanded-criteria donors, anti-hepatitis C virus-positive included. In the above case a transmission of hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype to recipient is present. It has been proven that contamination with more than 1 HCV genotype did not worsen KTx outcomes. There are 2.6% anti-HCV(+) donors in Poland. Use is only possible in cases of anti-HCV(+) and anti-HCV RNA(+) recipients. Methods Retrospective analysis covered 8675 deceased donors (1998-2012 Polish data from Poltransplant). The early (after 12 months) and late (after 60 months) graft and patient survival was assessed in KTx recipients, with documented recipient and donor data spanning at least 1 year after KTx. In comprehensive analysis, 7016 KTx recipients with known anti-HCV status were included according to anti-HCV profile of recipient and donor. The results are in absolute and percentage values and P < .05 assessed with χ 2 test. Results Twelve-month survival: recipient (R) (95%), graft (G) (89%), total; R (95% vs 89%, P < .001), G (88 vs 79, P < .001) in HCV(−) to HCV(+/−) vs HCV(+) to HCV(+); R (95 vs 94, P = .2), G (88 vs 83, P < .001), HCV(−) to HCV(−) vs HCV(−) to HCV(+); R (93 vs 95, P = .004), G (82 vs 89, P < .001) in HCV(+/−) to HCV(+) vs HCV(−) to HCV(−); R (95 vs 89, P < .001), G (88 vs 79, P < .001) in HCV(−) to HCV(−) vs HCV(+) vs HCV (+). Sixty-month survival: R (86%), G (75%), total; R (84 vs 88, P = .01), G (63 vs 71, P = .001) in HCV(+/−) to HCV(+) vs HCV(−) to HCV(−); R (88 vs 80, P = .003) in HCV(−) to HCV(−) vs HCV(+) to HCV(+). Conclusions The worst anti-HCV serological profile was HCV(+) to HCV(+), although transplanting HCV(+) to HCV(+) did not worsen outcomes in that group. Worse KTx outcomes of HCV(+) over HCV(−) donors can be attributed to HCV(+) status of the recipient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Hospital training called ETPOD—Essentials in Organ Donation—was introduced in Poland in 31 hospitals with under-utilized potential of donation. The aim of this study was to assess the effect in hospitals included and not included in program, before and after trainings. Methods The number of potential and effective donors, organs used, and number (%) of family refusals were compared at 10 and in 20 months after the training and in equal periods before. Results In trained hospitals, the number of potential donors increased (17% in 10 months, 10% in 20 months); in remaining hospitals, donors increased in 5% in both periods. In hospitals included in ETPOD, the number of effective donors increased (2% and 4.5%); in the whole country, donors also increased (5.6% and 2.7%). In ETPOD hospitals, the number of utilized organs increased (14.5% and 8.5%); in the rest, the increase was 3% and 7%. In trained hospitals, family refusals increased from 6.9% to 16.2% and from 8.9% to 10.7%; in the whole country, family refusals decreased from 11.7% to 11% in the short term and increased from 9.6% to 12.1% in the long term. Conclusions In hospitals involved in the ETPOD program, the increase in organ donation is greater than in the rest of hospitals. Distinct benefit was observed in consent to organ donation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Organ, tissue, and cell procurement from deceased donors for transplantation requires consent and authorization, documented donor's positive acceptance, or lack of objection to donation expressed while alive (consent). It also requires the fulfillment of other legal conditions required by law, such as person's legal abilities to act in this field or to obtain approval for donation (authorization). Consent to and authorization of donation from deceased donors requires regulations at the national level. Poland developed an opting-out policy with the Transplantation Act in 1996. The Central Register of Objections (CRO) was introduced on November 1, 1996. The purpose of this article is a formal analysis of all submitted objections and objection withdrawals managed by the CRO since the introduction of the registry in 1996 until the end of 2014. Materials and Methods All data collected by the CRO during 18 years of service was subject to analysis. The objections and withdrawals of objections are summarized in the tables, along with the age, sex, and place of residence of the registered residents. Results By December 31, 2014, a total of 29,288 records were registered, including 29,013 registered objections and 275 registered withdrawals of objections; this means that 0.075% of the country's population expressed objection to posthumous tissue and organ donation for transplantation. Legal representatives submitted 4208 declarations (15.6% of all declarations). The largest inflow of objections took place in 1997, the first full year of CRO activity. Conclusion CRO is an indispensable option in a country with opt-out system as a part of organ donation authorization protocol. Number of registered objections is extremely low, in practice, this leads to a situation where the will of the deceased most often is obtained from his family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We aim to provide a panorama of liver donation and transplantation in Poland, where each year around 300 liver transplantations from deceased donors and 20 liver fragment transplantations from living donors are performed. This means about 9 transplantations per population of 1 million. Each year, the number of deceased donors reaches more than 500. In more than 50% of cases, livers are used. The law allows liver procurement from living donors. Until the end of 2013, liver fragments were recovered from 236 living donors and transplanted mainly to pediatric recipients (n = 232). A living-donor registry was created to monitor and assess the health condition of donors. The range of the national waiting list and allocation is nationwide. It is managed with the use of the Web tool www.rejestry.net . There are 2 modes of recipient referral: “urgent” and “elective.” Allocation is either patient oriented and center oriented. Disease groups, which comprise the most frequent indications for transplantation in adults, include the cirrhosis group (48%), in which the highest number of procedures was performed for patients with hepatitis C virus (24%); alcohol-induced cirrhosis (14%); alcohol-induced hepatitis (8%), and hepatitis B virus cirrhosis (7%). Among pediatric recipients, the most frequent indications were congenital cholestatic diseases, which made up 38% of all transplantation indications. The results of liver transplantations are collected in the national transplant register. The 1-year graft and recipient survival with deceased donor transplantation are 81% and 84% and with living donor transplantation 86% and 89%. The 5-year graft and recipient survival in deceased donor transplantation are 69% and 73%, and in living donor transplantation are 80% and 83%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction In 2010, the system of donor hospital transplant coordinators was implemented in 200 hospitals in Poland on the basis of contracts with Poltransplant. Methods This study evaluated whether the system (nationwide, maintained and funded by national organization) is sufficient, improved donation after brain death rates, and hospital activities. Results Donation indicators over a 21-month period of coordinators' work were compared with the 21-month period before their employment. The number of hospitals with a positive effect and with no effect was analyzed overall and in groups of hospitals with specific profiles. The implemented system resulted in increasing the number of potential donors by 27% (effectively, 24%); increasing utilized organs by 20% and multiorgan retrievals from 54% to 56%; decreasing the rate of utilized organs/actual donors from 2.65 to 2.57; and increasing family refusals from 8.5% to 9.3%. A positive effect was achieved in 102 hospitals (51%). Better results were achieved in regions where donation were initially low, namely, 59% in university hospitals, 63% in hospitals in large cities, 77% in hospitals with 2 coordinators, 67% in hospitals for adults, and 52% in hospitals where the coordinator was a doctor and not a nurse. This system resulted globally in increasing donation rates, but was effective only in one half of hospitals. Conclusions Additional activities should be introduced to improve these results (quality systems, trainings, techniques for monitoring potential of donation, changes in profile of a coordinator). A formal analysis of coordinators' activities gives also the national organization a rational basis for their employment policy, taking into account the characteristics of hospitals and coordination teams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes bone marrow donation and transplantation in Poland in terms of its history, current state, and information on the quality control system. Based on data gathered from the informatics systems of the Polish Central Unrelated Potential Bone Marrow Donor and Cord Blood Registry and the Polish transplant registries, as well as World Marrow Donor Association statistics, we performed an overview study to collect and compare numbers on hematopoietic stem cells donations and transplantations in Poland in the years 2010-2014. In the last 5 years, the number of registered potential hematopoietic stem cells donors in Poland increased by more than 4 times, from about 146,000 to over 750,000. During the same period, the number of patients qualified to hematopoietic stem cells transplantation from unrelated donor increased from 557 in 2010 to 817 in 2014. We observed a striking change in the percentage of transplantations performed in Polish centers using material collected from national donors--from 24% to 60%. This shift was also evident in the number of search procedures closed with acceptation of Polish donors--from 27% in 2010 to 58% in 2014. Another consequence of Polish registry growth is the increasing number of donations from Polish donors for international patients. Between 2010 and 2014, the percent of donation for non-national patient increased from 33% to 76%, placing Poland in 6th place in the ranking of the HSC "exporters" worldwide. Growth of transplantation rates involves standardization process, which is a natural way of development for national organizations in the field of HSCT because of its international character.

Organ transplantation is vulnerable to serious adverse reactions and events, which require a system for their monitoring and management, as required of EU Member States by Directive 2010/53/EU. A management system was implemented in Poland using modern network technologies through the following steps: 1) the development of a catalogue of events and reactions, 2) the preparation and implementation of the network module, 3) the operational procedures, 4) the evaluation system. The catalogue consists of reactions and events in recipients and living donors related to organ procurement. A referral system was introduced as a module of a web tool www.rejestry.net (400 participated institutions). Notification includes information regarding the location, type, description, analysis, and measures taken to resolve and prevent problems. During the period 2012-2013, 17 serious adverse events and 112 reactions were documented among 3223 transplanted organs (events in 0.5% and reactions in 3.4% of the cases). The major cases included: transplantation from a donor with neoplasia, early recipient death, early graft loss, and transmission of severe infection. Evaluation revealed underestimated number of notifications of "death of recipient within 30 post-transplant days", which reported 74 of the 92 reactions (80%) occurring in reality. The system is a platform for self-assessment and the dissemination of information regarding the potential dangers, including alarms in cases in which an event/reaction in one center is accessible to others. However, the system is not punitive, because the fear of disclosing failures in the transplant centers plays an important role in the monitoring process.

Introduction: The widespread availability of medication without prescription, so-called over the counter (OTC), and the rapid development of health consciousness of Poles is associated with broad access to medical information in the mass media. This causes patients to recognize their own disease, cancel doctor's appointments, and begin self-treatment. This time and money-saving behavior, often signaled by pain, usually leads to the treatment of symptoms alone, without seeking the cause of the disease.The aim of the study was to present life-threatening paracetamol poisoning, and the treatment of acute liver failure., Material and Methods: In 2002-2014, 35 patients were hospitalized due to acute paracetamol poisoning: 17 female and 18 male patients aged between 17-59 (mean 32.3 years). Patients were treated in the surgical intensive care unit, where their parameters of liver and renal function were continuously monitored. If there was no improvement in the liver function, patients underwent albumin dialysis with the Prometheus system and were qualified for liver transplantation (LTx)., Results: 26 patients were treated pharmacologically and 7 out of 9 patients who underwent LTx were dialyzed. Overall, 11 patients had 26 albumin dialysis in total; 4 patients died - 1 post-transplant and 3 pre-transplant., Conclusions: Paracetamol is the cause of many poisonings resulting from the lack of public awareness about toxic interactions with alcohol, and suicide attempts. Acetaminophen-induced acute liver failure concerns a small percentage of patients but can be successfully treated with albumin dialysis, and in extreme cases by liver transplantation.

Pretransplant identification of allosensitized patients is possible thanks to new technologies, which allow for accurate detection of clinically relevant alloantibodies. Implementation of these methods in the screening of patients awaiting transplantation increased their chance for successful donor-recipient matching. Here, 1460 patients reported to the Polish National Waiting List were screened with the Luminex Screen (LS) solid phase test for anti-HLA antibodies. The patients with detected anti-HLA antibodies were assayed with the Luminex Single Antigen (LSA) tests in order to establish defined antigen specificity of the alloantibodies. The results were compared with data on the immunization assessed with the routine complement-dependent-cytotoxicity panel-reactive-antibody assay (PRA CDC). The study showed significantly higher sensitivity of the LS method when compared with PRA CDC. It has been shown that LSA test is a useful technique identifying the specificities of alloantibodies. In particular, LSA allowed to assess donor specific antibodies (DSA) to previous mismatches (MM) and to determine acceptable HLA mismatches of the potential donors. The introduction of solid phase tests in routine pretransplant diagnostics allowed for faster and more accurate assessment of the immunological risk of the recipients and optimal donor-recipient matching. Hence, the presented algorithm of solid phase assays has become a new standard for the identification of allosensitized patients awaiting kidney transplantation in Poland., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Despite the long-standing history of transplantation, the shortage of organs has remained its most restrictive factor. In 2010, the number of actual deceased organ donors in Poland was 13.5/million population (pmp). However, a huge difference in organ recovery rates is evident between various regions, eg, 32 pmp, in western Pomerania compared with 1-3 pmp in southern districts. A substantial number of patients who die while awaiting organ transplantations could be saved were effective programs able to overcome barriers in deceased organ donation. Such programs, eg, the European Donor Hospital Education Program, Donor Action, European Training Program on Organ Donation, United States Collaborative in Donation were introduced several years ago, but after transient improvements there has not been real progress. A new comprehensive program-Regional Partnership for Transplantation-was initiated a year ago in 4 districts of southern Poland by the Polish Union for Transplantation Medicine. The letter of intent to activate the donation program was signed by the local administration, the president of the local medical school, president of the Physician's Chamber, transplant centers, the Polish Union for Transplantation, and the Polish Transplant Coordinating Center. The plan of action included training of in-hospital coordinators, visits to all regional hospitals in company of a representative of the hospital founding body, examination of the real donation pool and the need for participation in a donation program training and education of the hospital staff in legal and organizational aspects of donation, brain death recognition, and various aspects of donor care. In addition, the program included communication skills workshops for intensive care unit physicians (with participation of 2 actors, an experienced anesthesiologist, and a psychologist), lectures for high school and university students and for hospital chaplains as well as alumni of higher seminaries. The preliminary results (after the first year) showed 40%-70% increases in activity of the local hospitals in the organ donation process., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Introduction: Ischemic heart disease and other atherosclerotic complications are the prominent causes of death among hemodialyzed end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients and renal transplant recipients. Numerous articles in recent years have raised the possibility of an infective factor, especially Chlamydia pneumoniae, in the development of atherosclerosis and its complications. The aim of this study was to assess the incidence of chronic C pneumoniae infection and its association with ischemic heart disease and atherosclerosis in a population of patients with ESRD awaiting renal transplantation., Material and Methods: The studied group consisted of 164 subjects: 99 ESRD patients (heart disease [HD] group) who were hospitalized for vascular access creation (27), pretransplantation nephrectomy (47), or kidney transplantation (25), and a control group of 65 subjects consisting of 50 healthy blood donors and 15 multiorgan donors. C pneumoniae was detected in vascular wall fragments, kidney biopsy specimens and peripheral blood monocytes using real time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Serum immunoglobulin IgG and IgA anti-C pneumoniae antibodies were detected using Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and a lipid profile (cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein [HDL], low-density lipoprotein [LDL], and triglycerides [TG]) was obtained. Data on cardiovascular disease events, smoking history, diabetes, hypertension, cause, and length of renal failure were collected and analyzed. The existence of atherosclerotic lesions was detected using ultrasound (US) Doppler examination of aortic bifurcation. Chronic C pneumoniae infection was diagnosed on the basis of detection of both IgA and IgG antibodies and/or the detection of C pneumoniae DNA in vascular wall fragments or peripheral blood monocytes. After a follow-up of 32 months, data on cardiovascular events and patient history were collected again., Results: Chronic C pneumoniae infection affected 46.5% (46/99) of HD patients and 9% (6/65) of controls (P < .05). Among HD patients, 26.3% (26/99) had ischemic heart disease (IHD) versus 6% in the control group. Among C pneumoniae-infected HD patients, IHD was more frequent (39.1%) than in noninfected HD patients (15%; P < .05). Within the 32-month observation period of the HD group, cardiac pain was observed in 11 (24%; 11/46) infected patients versus 3 (5.7%; 3/53) patients without C pneumoniae infection (P < .05). Exacerbation of previously diagnosed IHD was observed in 8 (44%; 8/18) cases in the C pneumoniae-infected group versus 0 (0%; 0/8) in the uninfected patients (P < .05)., Conclusions: Chronic C pneumoniae infection affects hemodialysis patients more frequently than healthy subjects. Hemodialysis patients with C pneumoniae infection are at the greater risk of exacerbation of existing IHD.