Organ Transplant Unit

Organ Transplant Unit

Organ transplantation is donating life. You can save lives with an organ transplant. Organ transplantation proven to be suitable from a living or deceased donor can be transplanted into adult and pediatric recipients.

Sometimes various organs in the body cannot perform their duties for different reasons. In such cases, various machines and supports are needed for patients to continue their lives. Sometimes, various supports may be insufficient in organ failure and organ transplantation is necessary.

Organ transplantation is the process of transplanting a part or all of the organ taken from a living or brain-dead person to the recipient patient, instead of organs that cannot fulfill their function. There should be tissue compatibility between the organ donor and the patient to whom the organ will be transplanted.

Today, organ transplant operations are performed on various organs. There are a wide variety of organ transplant centers, but there are still many people in the world who die from chronic organ failure. The most common organ transplant operations include kidney transplantation, liver, bone marrow, heart, and pancreas. In addition to these, new lung and small intestine transplantations have started to be performed. At the same time, tissues such as bone, tendon, and ligaments also remove tissue loss after cancer and trauma. There are also transplantation operations such as skin transplantation for burns and non-healing wounds, corneal transplantation to regain vision, and heart valve transplantation. Although the need for organ transplantation is very high today, the number of organ donations is very low.

Anyone who is healthy, of age, and can distinguish between right and wrong can donate their organs. Various organs can be donated, kidney, liver, heart, lung, intestine, pancreas, heart valve, cornea, muscle, bone, skin, face, and even extremities can be donated and these donations are taken from a deceased donor. There are also forms of organ donation, such as kidneys, liver, and pancreas, taken from a living donor.

Today, transplantation operations performed by taking organs from living donors such as kidneys and liver have become a routine operation and their success rates are very high. However, vital organs such as the heart cannot be obtained from a living donor, and therefore organ donations are the only hope for patients with organ failure.

In addition, organ transplantation is an ethically complex issue. Organ transplantation operations are an area with their laws and ethical rules. One of these ethical understandings is that there is a minimum risk, especially in operations with living donors. In kidney transplants, only 1 kidney of the donor can be donated, and the right or left lobe of the liver can be transplanted.

Kidney and Liver Transplantation:

Kidney transplantation is one of the most frequently performed organ transplantation operations in our country. It has a long-term protocol, so the success rate is high. The kidney from a living donor is transplanted to a known compatible recipient. Especially the kidney taken from a living donor works immediately. In kidney transplants taken from cadavers, days must pass for the kidneys to work.

In liver transplantation, there is no supportive treatment for the person who has liver failure, so there is a danger of death if there is no transplantation. During this waiting period, a suitable organ is often not found. For this reason, organ transplantation from a living donor is very important.

Organ transplants are limited between relatives when done by a living donor. However, people who are known to be 4th-degree relatives and who are related by blood can donate organs to their relatives. Couples who have been married for more than 2 years can donate organs to each other. If you are not related by blood, organ donation can be made with the permission of the ethics committee established by the Ministry of Health. The most important rule in transplants should be the same blood group compatibility. Otherwise, the recipient’s body is very likely to reject the organ transplant.

Organ transplants should be performed in fully equipped medical centers by experienced and expert surgeons and health professionals.

Medical Examinations for Kidney Transplantation

For the patient and the donor,

1. Blood group test
2. HIV Test
3. Hepatitis Markers
4. Syphilis test Test (VDLL)
5. Psa (If Gender is Male)
6. Routine Blood Tests wide specturume
   (Hemogram, sedimentation, bun, ure , kreatinin, gfr,crp,blood glucose)
7. Cardiology consultation
8. ECG , Echo
9. Pra (panel reactive anticore)

Kidney Transplant Ethics Committee Processes

How many days approximately we have to stay in your country for treatment?

It lasts around 30 days. (10 days for preparation ethical committee, 10 days hospitalization, 10 days medical control, IF THERE IS NO ANY COMPLICATIONS.)

What are the most mandatory tests we have to get done here before starting?

1. Blood tests of the Patient and the Donor.
2. Biochemistry of the Patient and the Donor. (Kidney function tests, liver function tests, electrolytes and etc).
3. Renal USG of the Patient and the Donor.
4. Whole Abdomen USG of the Patient and the Donor.
5. Doppler USG of the Patient and the Donor kidney vessels (Renal Doppler USG).
6. Tissue compatibility tests (HLA) of the Patient and the Donor.
7. Serology of the recipient and the donor for contagious diseases: HepC (Anti HCV), HepB (Anti-HBs, HBsAg), HIV (Anti-HIV).

Following is the cross-match table for the Donor- Recipient.

• Please note that kidney transplantation can be performed only from a living donor for international patients. (Regulated and controlled by the Ministry of Health/Turkish Republic) The donor must be the relative of the patient till 4th generation, and it must be proved by from the related embassy/consulate. The official paper must be in English or in Turkish. Patient’s spouse’s family can be considered a patient’s family with the same regulations as mentioned a the close friend can be the donor, but in all this situation, the patient must undergo Ethics Committee that is held once every two weeks in Istanbul Health Department. The patient and the patient’s friend or family undergo distinctive questionnaire. The committee personnel consists of doctors, police officers, psychologists and they should prove that they are truly friends or family . They should be aware that if they try to hide any information and at the end it comes out that it is an organ trafficking, there are very serious law penalties including imprisoning.
• We perform the pre-op tests in Hospital even if the patient has same tests results before.
• Suitable donors are the high probability in the age groups of 18- 60, have no operation before, no disease history before.

The documents needed:

1. Birth Certificate for patient and donor (with Apostille authorization)
2. Official family records of both of them (with Apostille authorization)
3. Passport copies
4. The above-mentioned documents will be Apostilled in your own country and will be translated into turkish.
5. Board decision of home country.
6. Letter of Affidavit: This should include all the listed points above.

• The donor is donating by his own will and the recipient is recieving by his own will.
• If the donor is married, his or her spouses letter of Affidavit. If not, a certificate that shows he or she is not married.
• If the donor and recipient are below 18 years old, letter of Affidavit from his both parents if one is not alive, from one of them, if both are not alive from elder brother or sister.
• Annual income of the donor and the recipient.
• Free from any kind of debt.
• 7, A court paper which shows the donor and the recipient are family members.

All the pre-operative tests are done in the hospital. You have to prepare only the legal documents that we have talked before.

Who will perform the procedure I mean transplantation team details?

You may find the cv’s of the renal transplantation teambelow.

Could you elaborate more about operation part what are things taken care in operation package (like donor surgery, recipient surgery, anti rejection injection etc.?

All surgeries that are related with renal transplantation are in the package. In every case there is a possibility of rejection but to prevent rejection, we use some medicine (Grafalon). 3 application of Grafalon are in the package.

We are many people (donor, patient and attendant) are planning to come there for treatment, so what are the accommodation facilities we can have from hospital?

There are some hotels and guest house that we have discount agreement.

How visa process works?

We will help and arrange in every VISA presses like invitation letter for VISA, following up with the embassy .

After treatment and reaching back to our country how we get support from the hospital I mean virtual follow-ups ?

After treatment we always be in touch with the patients for medical advices.

As per your experience what will be the approximate expenditure in USD for whole trip?

Please calculate the ticket prices and hotel prices that you choose. But it differs person to person.

In how many days we can start from here and what are the expected timelines and schedules?

The patient must be in the country 10 days before ethical committe and learn the meeting date which meets twice in one month.

During our stay in your country what is the assistance we can expect from hospital?

We offer translators in the hospital and fort he notary, embassy processes that will be in the