German Nikolaev, Chief Visiting Transplantologist of the Healthcare Committee, Head of the Thoracic Surgery Research Laboratory at Almazov Centre, took part in a working meeting with Oleg Ergashev, Vice Governor of St. Petersburg to discuss the topical issues of high-tech medical care in the field of transplantation.
It is worth noting that around 2,000 transplants are performed in Russia each year. Of these, 144 transplants were performed in St. Petersburg in the first half of 2023 alone. The number of these high-tech procedures is growing steadily in the city. In the 9 years from 2013 to 2022, the number of organ and tissue transplants increased 5-fold. In particular, the number of donor heart and liver transplants increased sevenfold and the number of kidney transplants increased fourfold.
Thanks to the joint work of the St. Petersburg Government, the St. Petersburg Healthcare Committee and the Russian Ministry of Health, the number of high-tech medical care quotas for transplantation in St. Petersburg will increase by 2.5 times by 2023. In the coming years, a number of measures will be implemented to organise lung and heart-lung (cardiopulmonary) transplants.
Today, 7 medical institutions in St. Petersburg perform organ transplants, of which only Almazov Centre performs heart transplants. For many terminally ill patients, organ transplantation is the only way to save their lives.