Medical Coursework



Medical Coursework

Introduction

In United Kingdom, about 3,960 organ transplants took place during the year of 2011/2012 because of 2,143 generous people registered on the National Health Service (NHS). However, there were still a huge number of people with end stage organ failure waiting for a suitable donor. In November 2012, reports found the number to be over 7,593. Moreover, more than 1000 people die annually while waiting for a transplant, of which thousands are randomly denied access to the organ waiting list.

Organ transplantation is the top available method for the treatment of end stage organ failure for most of the essential organs, such as liver, lungs, and heart. Through organ transplantation, most of the patients have been more than 25 years. Furthermore, significant number of people can now expect to achieve high survival rates and improved quality of life due to recent advances in immune-suppression, as well as modern preservation techniques of organs. Nonetheless, organ donation is a key factor in helping people who with end stage organ failure. Whether it is a single organ system of the heart, lung, liver, kidneys, or pancreas, organ donation can drastically increase the surviving rates of the patients, as well as improves the quality of life. Patients may require transplant as a result of a primary disease or as a result of secondary effects of a disease, such as kidney transplant may become necessary in patients of diabetes mellitus.

In recent times, transplant success rates have rapidly increased demand for donor organs, as well. However, unfortunately, we do not see a similar increase in the donors. The shortage of transplant donors is a problem of concern all over the world. Though, in UK, the situation becomes more disappointing as we are unable to improve on the number of cadaveric donations, unlike the rest of the world.

Discussion

Presently, there are two sources for organ transplantation. One option for organs is living donations, and other is deceased donation. Deceased donations refer to organ donations that follow death defined by neurological criteria, comprising of cardiac death or brainstem death. After cardiac death, controlled non-heart beating organ donation (NHBOD) is the most acceptable form of donation; however, it is still practiced relatively infrequently.

Significant investments done on living donations have rapidly improved the kidney transplantation in UK. This is because more living donors are willing to donate organs for their loved ones, instead of waiting through the lacking donor list. In contrast, essential organs, such as liver, heart, and lungs, remain highly dependent on deceased donations.

In UK, the shortage of cadaveric donations has reached a critically low point over the past few decades. A significant point for recovering from this shortage is the public support for donations after the death of their loved one. Recognizing the fact that many countries, within Europe and beyond, have improved donation rates extensively, the Department of Health developed a multi-disciplinary Organ Donation Taskforce (ODTF) in 2006. The aim of ODTF was identify the hurdles in organ donation with the country, as ...