Austria's organ donation 2024: record numbers and big challenges!

Austria's organ donation 2024: record numbers and big challenges!

Kärnten, Österreich - In Austria, a remarkable increase in organ donations was recorded in Austria. According to the Kleine Zeitung were transplanted a total of 637 organs, a ray of hope for many patients who are in life-saving transplants are.

of 311 deceased persons who were reported as potential organ donors could be removed and transplanted at 166. On average, three organs were taken per donor. This shows that the willingness to donate organ still remains an important topic.

regional differences and waiting lists

Carinthia was the leading federal state in relation to the organ donor rate, with 36.9 donors per million inhabitants. Tyrol followed with 27.1 and Salzburg with 22.7 donors per million. These regional differences raise questions about the supply and information situation of the population.

at the end of 2024 were 848 patients on waiting lists, a worrying increase of 38 people compared to the previous year. In particular, 660 people were waiting for a kidney in 2023, the most frequently transplanted organ type according to organzon-info.de was with 319 transplantations.

The waiting times for organs vary considerably. The median waiting time for a kidney is 40.6 months and 16.3 months from the recording on the waiting list from the first dialysis. Other types of organ, on the other hand, show off the waiting times of less than one year. Faster supply is especially necessary for kidney transplants to save lives.

stem cell transplantation and contradictory register

A positive trend is shown in the area of ​​the stem cell transplants, which rose from 577 to 609. Around 90% of the waiting patients on a stem cell donation were able to identify a foreign donor in 2024. The median search duration for a foreign donor was only 23 days, which gives hope for many patients.

In 2024, 4,747 people could be included in the contradiction register for organ donation, while 318 were deleted from this register. The total number of the persons entered in the opposition register was thus 66.192 at the end of 2024. Such registers are crucial to create transparency and promote the willingness to donate.

conclusions and international comparisons

Austria moves in an international comparison in the midfield of the organization of the organ, but it leads in the area of ​​lung transplants with 13.6 transplants per million inhabitants. The current Annual Report 2023 of the organizational office for the transplantation creates the need for measures to ensure an adequate donation volume.

The proposed measures include the attitudes of regional transplant officers, training courses in intensive care staff and international cooperation. These steps are essential to increase the quality of care and awareness of organ donation in the entire population.

Overall, the review of 2024 shows that there are both challenges and progress in the Austrian transplantation, whereby continuous commitment and education are necessary to further increase the numbers of organ donors and transplants.