A little better, after two years complicated by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Despite a year 2022 marked by a triple epidemic of influenza, Covid-19 and bronchiolitis which has damaged the hospital, even if it has not yet returned to its pre-crisis level,
“the number of transplants reached in 2022 is encouraging”
, underlines in a press release François Kerbaul, director of organ and tissue harvesting and transplantation at the Biomedicine Agency.
As for organ transplants, the overall increase is 4% compared to 2021, with 5,494 transplants performed (compared to 5,901 in 2019, before the health crisis).
It is, on the one hand, the fruit of a
"better census of people who died by brain death"
, underlines the agency (2984 donors listed in 2022, up 6.1% compared to 2021, and 1459 donors actually removed, +4.8%).
“Maastricht III” type samples, from a donor who is not brain dead but for whom it has been decided to stop treatment, are also on the rise with 235 patients sampled compared to 217 (for 609 identified) in 2021. This modality of direct debit, authorized in France since 2015, is still struggling to establish itself but is progressing slowly.
The removal of tissues (cornea, blood vessels, skin, heart valves and bone) is also on the rise.
6,226 deceased donors were removed in 2022 (+5.5% compared to 2021, and +29.1% compared to 2020).
Here again, the pre-pandemic level has not yet been reached, except for vein sampling, which is experiencing the strongest increase with +43.5% compared to 2021, +196.6% compared to to 2019.
A need for communication
Despite this encouraging assessment, activity remains lower than before the health crisis, underlines the Biomedicine Agency.
"
All the efforts made by health professionals, patient associations, hospital administrations, health authorities and learned societies will not make it possible to achieve the objectives set by the Transplant Plan and linked to patient expectations, if the situation hospital does not improve
“, emphasizes Professor Kerbaul.
And France is still far from meeting the needs: all organs combined, on January 1, 10,810 patients were on the active waiting list, immediately eligible for an organ transplant.
The Biomedicine Agency therefore hopes that the 2022-2026 “transplant plan” launched by the government will make it possible to improve things, with additional funding (210 million euros more allocated for five years, within a overall effort of 2 billion euros) and better organization of the sector and between players.
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But it will also be necessary to play on better communication with the French.
"One of the main levers on which we must act to strengthen this national priority activity is to reduce the rate of opposition to sampling, which is particularly high in France"
, insists Marine Jeantet, new Director General of the Biomedicine Agency. .
The barometer* conducted at the beginning of each year by the Agency to assess French people's perception of organ and tissue donation shows that if they have a good image of organ donation (80% of French people have a that this law is in line with their values, and the same proportion are in favor of donating their own organs after their death), in fact, only 54% feel concerned and 47% have spoken about it to their relatives.
The latter, unable to comment on the wishes of the deceased when the question of organ donation arises, fall back on
"a position of caution (...) which in fact prohibits the removal"
, indicates the Agency.
"We
can all, tomorrow, be a recipient or donor of an organ
," insists David Heard, Spokesperson for the Biomedicine Agency
.
There is a real challenge in bringing out the subject in the media, in public opinion, and that everyone devotes time to discussing this issue.
There aren't many other areas where talking about it is enough to save lives
!”
*Annual Biomedicine Agency / Viavoice survey of a representative sample of the French population of 1,012 people aged 16 and over.
