Waiting lists for organ transplant increased last year

The number of people in the Netherlands waiting for an organ transplant increased last year, partly due to the lockdown and the intensive care units full of Covid-19 patients, De Telegraaf reports.

The full ICUs resulted in many surgeries being postponed. Patients that underwent surgery, but especially an organ transplant, require intensive care afterward. If no beds were available, their surgeries had to be delayed. 

The lockdowns also played a role. "It sounds a bit crude, but due to lockdown, there were fewer traffic accidents, for example, and fewer organ transplants were, therefore, possible," Aiko de Vries, internist-nephrologist at the LUMC and the chairman of the national consultation for kidney transplantation LONT, said to the newspaper.

The waiting list for a kidney in particular increased. In January last year, 806 patients were waiting for a kidney from a deceased donor. In January this year, 877 people were on the waiting list. "There are now regions where there are more dialysis patients," De Vries said to the newspaper. "That is worrying because the best outcome for a kidney transplant is if no dialysis preceded it."