​Bogotá, October 14, 2021. Organ and tissue transplants are medical procedures that have proven effective not only in saving the lives of many Colombians, but also in improving their quality. In this country, regulations guarantee the altruistic, voluntary donation of organs and tissues for transplant procedures for patients who need it.

In the national territory, all types of transplants are conducted and have demonstrated, up to now, their efficacy and safety. This refers to organs (kidney, heart, lung, pancreas, liver, and intestine), as well as tissues (corneas, heart valves, musculoskeletal, skin or amniotic membrane), or hematopoietic stem cells (bone marrow, umbilical cord or peripheral blood).

Edwin Antonio Cárdenas, specialized professional at the directorate of Medicines and Health Technologies of the Ministry of Health, referring to the subject of World Organ Donor Day, stated that during 2020, even with the pandemic, donation and transplantation activities in the country were not suspended, despite an overwhelmed health system and intensive care units, and that these continued under strict biosafety protocols.

According to Cárdenas, with the objective of standardizing the minimum national guidelines for the management of the processes in the Donation and Transplant Network in the health emergency, the National Institute of Health (INS)–as national coordinator of the Network of Donation and Transplantation–issued the "Technical Guidelines for the Donation and Transplantation Network related to the SARSCoV-2 coronavirus." The document defined, among other aspects, the recommendations for the performance of organ transplantation procedures and tissues in Health Care Providers.

Donation and transplant data

In Colombia, according to the INS, as of September 2021, there have been 188 organ donors and 977 tissue donors. 660 organ transplants have been performed, of which 515 have been with a cadaveric donor and 145 with a living donor. See table 1.

Source. National Information and Transplant System (RedDataINS)

 Table 2. Number of recipients on the waiting list in Colombia as of September 30, 2021.

Source. National Information and Transplant System (RedDataINS)

"Given that the performance of transplant procedures depends on the detection of donors, the invitation is for all of us to express our willingness, to our relatives, to donate our organs and tissues, so that when we die, this will be respected and more Colombians can benefit from a transplant," concluded Cárdenas.