Brazil had 206 heart transplants in the 1st semester – 08/22/2023 – Health

Brazil had 206 heart transplants performed in the first half of this year, according to the Ministry of Health. The number is 16% higher than that recorded in the same period of 2022.

The health condition of presenter Fausto Silva, Faustão, places him as a priority in the transplant queue, according to an expert. The presenter has been hospitalized since August 5 at Albert Einstein Hospital, in São Paulo, treating heart failure and undergoing dialysis. He got on the transplant line to receive a new heart.

The Ministry of Health claims that Brazil has the largest public organ transplantation system in the world. Through the SUS (Sistema Único de Saúde), patients receive comprehensive, equitable, universal and free assistance, including preparatory exams, surgery, follow-up and post-transplantation medication, says the folder.

The list for transplants is unique, valid for both SUS and private network patients.

Scheduling works in chronological order of registration (order of arrival) and also follows other criteria, such as compatibility, severity of the case and blood type of the donor. Patients in critical condition, however, can be treated with priority.

The National Transplant System has in its composition the National Transplant Center of the Ministry of Health and the state Transplant Centers, among other actors involved in the process of donation and transplantation of organs and tissues.

Transplant waiting lists are managed by state centrals. Organs destined for donation that are not used in the state itself are directed to the national central, which searches for a recipient on the single list.

According to data from the Ministry of Health on August 16, 386 people are waiting for an organ in Brazil.

According to physician João Vicente da Silveira, a specialist in cardiology, after being included in the list, the patient must wait for their turn to arrive. But serious cases, such as hospitalization in the ICU (Intensive Care Unit), become a priority.

“This patient goes ahead. For example, Faustão is in the ICU today. He is taking medication into a vein to make his heart beat faster. This is momentary, it is not eternal. But as he is in a greater gravity, he ‘ skip the queue’. But you have to be in the ICU and be justified”, says Silveira.

RULES FOR TRANSPLANTATION

Donated organs go to patients who need a transplant and are already waiting on a unified and computerized waiting list. In addition to blood compatibility between donor and recipient, genetic compatibility between donor and recipient, when necessary, is determined by laboratory tests.

Another important factor is the location, since it is necessary to verify the duration of the organ outside the body. Depending on the deadline, the transport of the organ to the destination is done by plane.

In Brazil, the most anticipated organ for transplantation is the kidney, with 36,690 people on the waiting list. The cornea is in second place, with 25,689, and the liver follows, with 2,253. The heart, the case of presenter Fausto Silva, is in 5th place.

The state with the most people on the transplant waiting list is São Paulo, with 23,671. The second is Minas Gerais, which has 7,096, followed by Rio de Janeiro, with 6,138 patients in the queue.

This year, until the last day 16, 11,264 transplants were performed in Brazil, in total, 5,946 of the cornea, 3,544 of the kidney, and 1,417 of the liver. There were also 244 heart transplants.

In the same period of 2022, there were 16,733 transplants in the country.

HEART TRANSPLANT

The heart, after being removed from the donor, has a period of four hours to be implanted in the recipient. After that period, the organ begins to deteriorate.

“From the logistical point of view, the surgery has to be very well organized. The capture has to be coordinated in such a way that the surgeon who is with the patient who is going to receive the heart finishes the transplant within four hours”, he says. doctor Samuel Steffen, cardiac surgeon at Rede D’Or and Incor (Heart Institute).

After the transplant, the period of 24 to 48 hours is the most critical for the process of adaptation of the new heart in the body, but most patients do well in this phase, adds the surgeon.

“When undergoing a transplant, the patient ends up having to stay, on average, 30 days in the hospital, which is the post-transplant period. From the moment you change the heart, you need to take care of a situation called rejection. You have to adjust the medications so that the body does not reject this heart”, he says.

The patient needs to maintain a medical follow-up routine. Up to six months after the transplant, this routine consists of a monthly consultation; then it goes on to a consultation every two months, and then it goes on spacing. Care is maintained to avoid rejection of the organ.

“We always say that ten-year survival is very good. But medicine has evolved a lot in recent years, especially in relation to the treatment of rejection”, says Steffen.