More men than women, on average young (only one third is over 60) and forced to wait for more than two years. It is the photograph of patients waiting for an organ, taken by the National Transplant Center.
I am exactly 8.291 patients registered on the waiting lists of the transplant information system. 72.5% (6,132) expect a rene, it 12.7% (1.076) a liver, 7.9% (670) a new one heart. Lower numbers of those in need of a lung transplant (3.8%, 320 patients) e pancreas (3%, 252 patients), while 5 are waiting for a bowel. 164 patients await a multi-organ transplant and are simultaneously enrolled in multiple lists. 15.5% of expectant patients (1,287 people) have already received an organ in the past and are awaiting re-transplantation: in almost all cases (97.5%) it is a kidney, but there are also 5 patients who need a second heart transplant and 13 another liver.
“There are still too many patients on the waiting list – explains the director of the National Transplant Center Massimo Cardillo – and the only way to give these people hope of recovery as soon as possible is to increase the number of organ donations. Unfortunately, the percentage of those who oppose the levy still exceeds 30%, and it becomes increasingly urgent to disseminate correct information to overcome the fears and false beliefs still present in public opinion. This is precisely the goal of the new campaign ‘Donating is a natural choice’ that the Ministry of Health and the Cnt are launching these days”.
MAJORITY MEN AND UNDER 60
There are almost twice as many men waiting for an organ of women: 64% against 36%, a prevalence that becomes more marked in the case of the heart list, in which males are 80%. The only organ for which the waiting list sees a very slight female majority (52%) is the lung. Over half of the patients (52%) are aged between 40 and 60, a third (33%) are over 60, 15% are under 40. There are 202 pediatric patients: the youngest on the list is only 7 months old and expecting a heart. But the transplant is also an opportunity for many elderly people: last year in Milan an 81-year-old was able to receive a new kidney.
THE AVERAGE WAIT IN 2020: 5 MONTHS FOR A LIVER, MORE THAN 2 YEARS FOR A KIDNEY
Patients who received a transplant in 2020 they waited on average less than 5 months for a liver, 11 months for the pancreas, 1 year and 1 month for the heart and lungs, 2 years and 1 month for a kidney. But the average time spent on the list of those who are still waiting are longer (3 years and 4 months for the kidney), because there are many patients who are difficult to transplant.
MOLISE IS THE REGION WITH THE HIGHEST INCIDENCE
In absolute terms, it is the Lombardy is the region with the most residents registered on the list (1,272), but in reality Molise is the region with the highest incidence of people awaiting transplant in relation to the number of residents, with an index of 23.6 patients per 100 thousand inhabitants, almost double the national average. 13.7 patients on the list per 100 thousand inhabitants. Followed by Puglia (17.8 / 100 thousand), Liguria (17.2), Lazio (15.8) and Sicily (15.7). The regions with a lower prevalence of patients on the list are Trentino Alto Adige (6.8 people on the list per 100 thousand inhabitants), Sardinia (9.8), Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia (11.3).
The Italian waiting lists also include 38 patients residing abroad, coming from European Union countries or with whom Italy has bilateral agreements that include the exchange of organs. The majority comes from the Balkan Peninsula: 10 are Serbian citizens, 7 Bosnians and 6 Croats.
THE MOST DIFFUSED PATHOLOGIES
Renal polycystosis and chronic glomerulonephritis are the pathologies that most frequently lead to transplantation: together they make up the diagnosis of almost a third of people who need a kidney. As for the liver, however, the indication for transplantation comes in the majority for hepatocarcinoma associated with cirrhosis, while among those expecting a heart, dilated cardiomyopathies on an ischemic or idiopathic basis prevail. Finally, cystic fibrosis and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis are the two most common diseases among patients on the list for a lung while about half of those waiting for a pancreas suffer from type I diabetes mellitus.