Spain continues to lead the world in the number of donated organs and has broken its own world record, according to the June 20 issue of The Lancet (1998;351:1868).
The report said that 1427 transplants were performed from January 1 to June 1 this year, a 13% increase over the 1249 transplants reported during the same period last year. Spain's rate of more than 30 donors per million people has been "considered an impassable barrier by many experts," the article said in a quote attributed to Spain's assistant secretary of the Health Ministry.
The rate of family refusals for donations has fallen from 30% in 1990 to the current level of 21%. The article attributed Spain's high rate of donation partly to "the generosity of the population," up to 90% of which favors donation. In addition, "a large part has been played by the popular image of the national transplantation organisation coordinating committee, whose transparency, fairness, and effectiveness have contributed to people's attitudes," The Lancet said.
Another factor has been the collaboration of Spanish airports and aircraft system to ensure that organs are quickly transported between cities. Last year, there were 244 emergency flights for which "the airport was opened specially to make possible the rapid coordination of all the transplantation team," The Lancet said.
The article speculated that the rate of donations in Spain may continue to increase in light of a new decree that "is being created that will update and expand the definition of brain death."
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