Process of establishing Slovenija Transplant (Institute of the Republic of Slovenia for the Transplantation of Organs and Tissues)

• Main Authors: Nastja Svetina, Zvonka Zupanič Slavec
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Slovenian Medical Association 2016-02-01
• Series: Zdravniški Vestnik
• Subjects: transplantation medicine, retrospective study, Slovenija-transplant, Slovenia, history of medicine
• Online Access: http://vestnik.szd.si/index.php/ZdravVest/article/view/1444

<p dir="ltr"><span>Transplantation medicine is a rather young medical field. As a method of treatment human organs are used. These organs are donated with the aim to help fellow humans plagued by disease or in desperate situation. First condition for a successful treatment is developing a program that will take care of procuring the necessary organs. This should be an independent activity which requires appropriate addressing of professional, juridical, organizational and ethical aspects.</span></p><p dir="ltr"><span>In 1970, Slovenia started kidney transplantation from living related donors. As long as the transplantation activity covered only kidney transplants of the living donors, all the activities were conducted by nephrologists. Act on removal and transplantation of human body parts for medical purposes issued in 1985, and Rules on detailed medical criteria and the methods for determining occurrence of brain death of the person from whom it is permitted to take body parts for transplantation for treatment in 1986, made it possible to transplant organs from deceased donors. With the transition to deceased donor organs and the possibility of transplanting other organs (heart, liver, lungs, pancreas), it became necessary to organize these activities on national level. In 1992 Extended expert council for transplantation was established. The council planned all the necessary procedures for the construction of National transplantation network, the establishment of 24-hour coordination and the fastest way of passing of a transplantation law which enabled the establishment of Slovenia-transplant in 2000.</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-77c19e82-3b3c-012c-350e-7b6e612bdc79"><span>After the establishment of 24-hour central coordination the number of organs procured from deceased donors has increased substantially. Slovenia has reached a similar number of organs obtained from deceased donors per million inhabitants, as member countries of the Eurotransplant association. At the same time the system was safe, reliable, transparent and properly regulated. Slovenia could therefore start negotiations for joining Eurotransplant. Even before the formal establishment of Slovenija Transplant, Slovenia became full member of the association.</span></span>