There were 16 cases in Japan in 2023 in which heart transplant surgeries were abandoned due to staff shortages and other reasons at medical institutions, the Japanese Society for Heart Transplantation said Tuesday.
The society surveyed 11 medical institutions that perform heart transplants in the country. Of the abandoned cases, 15 were reported at the University of Tokyo Hospital, and the remaining one at the National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center in the city of Suita, Osaka Prefecture.
A shortage of doctors and nurses was cited as a reason for abandoning such operations.
The donated hearts that were turned down at the two medical institutions are believed to have been transplanted into patients at other hospitals.
Of the 16 patients whose transplant operations were abandoned, 10 received transplants later, while six are still awaiting transplants.
In 2023, a total of 115 heart transplants were performed at the 11 medical institutions. Of them, the University of Tokyo Hospital and the National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center accounted for 25 and 32, respectively.
At a news conference on Tuesday, Yoshiki Sawa, head of the transplantation society, stressed the need to resolve the current situation in which heart transplants are concentrated in a few medical institutions and to create a system that allows patients found compatible with donated organs to be transferred to other hospitals for transplantation.
"We will work to strengthen the system to help as many patients as possible," including through cooperation with the public sector, Sawa said.