Czech IKEM centre transplanted 396 organs in 2012 - its head

However, he pointed to problems with the transplant funding.

Health insurance companies do not cover some treatments and medicines for these patients. This is why the IKEM´s centre had to cover the loss of 160 million crowns from the proceeds of other programmes.

Herman is therefore negotiating with the Health Ministry and health insurers about a solution to the problem. The IKEM has proposed "package prices" that would cover the transplant costs.

"Last year´s results are very impressive. Our ambition is to become the national transplant centre," Herman told reporters.

They IKEM centre performed more than one transplant a day on average last year.

In 2012, the centre performed the highest numbers of both child and adult liver transplants and transplants of kidneys from living donors.

Apart from kidney and liver, the IKEM can also transplant the heart, pancreas and the islets of Langerhans.

Kidney transplants are the most frequent.

Last year 183 patients received kidneys from dead donors and 52 from living donors, either relatives or friends, which is the highest figure in the history of the programme, Transplant Centre head doctor Pavel Trunecka said.

One of the greatest successes was the first chain kidney transplant in the Czech Republic performed on 6-7 November, 2012, in which six people donated their organs and gave another six patients a chance of a new life.

"These patients are getting on well now and their new kidneys will be functioning up to twice longer than if they were from dead donors," Trunecka said.

Besides, the IKEM centre performed 83 liver transplants last year, which is almost 20 more than in 2011.

It is the only centre in the country transplanting the liver into children. Last year, it carried out 12 such transplants, including one case of a repeated surgery. The youngest patient was four months old.

A one-year-old girl received a part of a liver from a living donor (her father) in December 2012, which was a third transplant of this kind in the Czech Republic.

($=18.786 crowns)

Author: ČTK
www.ctk.cz