More than 10,000 people received liver transplants in China
between March 2005 and May 2007.
Most of the patients' information is registered with the China
Liver Transplant Registration (CLTR) system. Several of Shanghai's
more reputable hospitals, including Renji Hospital, Zhongshan
Hospital and Ruijin Hospital, are participating in the system.
The CLTR statistics showed that the one-year survival rate for
people who have undergone a liver transplant has doubled in recent
years.
From 2003 to 2006, 84 percent of such patients survived for more
than a year. And the three-year survival rate increased to about 75
percent in 2006 from 37 percent in 2003.
"This shows China's surgery skills and follow-up treatments have
reached a high level," experts said at the 2007 Forum on Liver
Disease and Transplant, which took place recently at Renji
Hospital.
About a decade ago, many patients who had undergone liver
transplants died from infections or because their bodies had
rejected the transplanted organs. Today, such patients are more
likely to die of other diseases, such as atherosclerosis, high
blood pressure, diabetes and so on.
"Given these changes, we surgeons should work more closely with
physicians on medical supervision and follow-up treatments after a
transplant," Dr Xia Qiang from Renji Hospital said.
About 1.5 million people suffer from organ failures and need
transplants every year, according to statistics from a recent
conference promoting live organ transplants between families that
had been organized by Roche Pharmaceuticals Ltd.
Only 10,000 of the 1.5 million receive organ transplants every
year, and about half of them are kidney transplants. Many others
die waiting for an available organ.
In China, no more than 4 percent of organ transplants are
between relatives. In Western countries the ratio is 30
percent.
Doctors from hospitals that are well known for carrying out
organ transplants said such procedures should involve family
members because of such advantages as a "high success rate, good
clinical effects and low cost".
(China Daily August 15, 2007)