Belarus to conduct about 20 lung transplant surgeries yearly

Minsk Teaching Hospital No. 9 will do about 20 lung transplant surgeries every year, BelTA learnt from Head of the National Organ and Tissue Transplantation Center Oleg Rummo.

“Belarus’ first thoracic surgery and lung transplantation department opened in Minsk Teaching Hospital No. 9 in November 2012. The major objectives of the department are to assimilate new technologies, develop a nation-wide lung transplantation program, and conduct surgeries to transplant lungs. The first lung transplant surgery is to be conducted in the first half of 2013,” Oleg Rummo said.

The department has 20 beds. It is meant for people placed on the waiting list for organ transplantation. “Lung transplant surgeries are in great demand in Belarus and abroad. We have already found several dozen Belarusians who badly need lung transplantation,” Oleg Rummo said.

In his words, the new department will do about 20 lung transplant surgeries every year. The department will also perform a wide range of most complicated lung surgeries. “We have created a team that will soon be sent for training to world’s best healthcare facilities,” Oleg Rummo said.

The National Organ and Tissue Transplantation Center based at Minsk Clinical Hospital No. 9 conducts kidney and liver transplant surgeries. There are transplantation departments in Brest and Gomel. Such departments are to be set up in Mogilev, Vitebsk and Grodno by 2015.

In 2012 some 274 transplant surgeries were performed in Belarus. The number of transplant surgeries per one million people in Belarus stands at 29. To compare, the figure in Russia is 9.1 and 2.2 in Ukraine.