The Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) performed 1,791 organ and tissue transplants in 2021, this meant recovering a productivity of 212 percent when compared to the 850 procedures that were carried out in 2020, which was possible with the strategy of recovering medical services.
Dr. Pedro Paz Solís, coordinator of Donation and Transplantation of Organs, Tissues and Cells of the IMSS, explained that of the total number of transplants carried out last year, 815 were kidney, 674 cornea, 234 bone marrow or hematopoietic progenitor cells, 49 liver and 19 heart, as well as 629 organ and tissue procurements.
He stated that these results were possible because the Social Security has a donation hospital network, made up of 72 medical units licensed to perform extraction and procurement surgery, and 57 male and female doctors dedicated full time to this activity.
Regarding national productivity, he indicated that Social Security performed 42 percent of all transplants performed in the health sector.
We managed to do 40 percent of the nation’s kidney transplants; in the case of cornea we achieved, it was 50 percent; in liver we placed ourselves with 30 percent and in heart, we practically did 99 percent”.
He explained that the majority of patients who require a transplant, are those that by accident generated an organic or tissue failure such as corneal rupture, due to infectious diseases, hepatocarcinoma tumors, kidney or liver failure, or heart disease that cannot be corrected with treatment or devices.
He explained that to guarantee procedures free of Covid-19, the Institute adheres to the guidelines of the Ministry of Health and implemented its own protocols.
In the case of patients who will receive a transplant and related living donors, a confirmatory test for the SARS-CoV-2 virus 24 hours prior to transplantation, and in the case of cadaveric donation, up to three days prior to surgery.