Asan Medical Center, the mecca for organ transplantation
Organ transplantation, the essence of modern medicine
Performing 1 out of 4 transplantations in Korea
AMC performed the largest number of organ transplants last year. It ranked No. 1 in four areas such as kidney, liver, pancreas and heart. The photo shows Professor Han Duck-jong of the Division of General Surgery (left) performing the first 200th pancreas transplantation in Korea, April 2013.
Mr. Lee Sang-jun who received a liver transplantation by the medical team led by Professor Lee Sung-gyu of of the Division of Liver Transplantation and Hepatobiliary Surgery in October 1992. As the longest adult survivor of liver transplantation, he has been living a healthy life for 22 years.
Asan Medical Center has performed the largest number of organ transplants in Korea last year. According to the Annual Report of the Transplant 2013 published by the Korea Network for Organ Sharing (KONOS), a total of 3,795 transplants were performed in Korea last year. Out of them, a total of 876 transplants were performed in AMC which is the largest number in a single medical institution nationwide. It accounts for 23.1% or a fourth of domestic transplant operations. The annual reports released from 2000 when the KONOS was established demonstrate that AMC is the hospital performing the largest number of transplants every year.
Currently in Korea, nine organ transplants such as kidney, liver, pancreas, heart, lung, islet, small bowel, eye, and bone marrow are available. The number of transplants performed in AMC for the past year per organ include ▲38 out of 61 in pancreas (62%) ▲61 out of 127 in heart (48%) ▲414 out of 1,186 in liver (34%) ▲11 out of 46 in lung (23%) ▲309 out of 1,760 in kidney (17%) ▲1 out of 5 in small bowel (20%) ▲36 out of 521 in eye (6%) ▲6 out of 86 in bone marrow (6%). It ranked No. 1 especially in four areas such as kidney, liver, pancreas and heart with 2 to 7 times more than the second-ranking hospital. It represents AMC’s unparalleled performance in organ transplantation.
AMC also had the overwhelming majority of organ donors. The same data showed that AMC had 591 organ donors, which was three times more than that of the second-ranking hospital (187). That is to say, AMC was the best both in the number of transplants performed and organ donors.
AMC’s one-year survival rate is also second to none with ▲97% in liver transplant (the U.S: 86%) ▲97% in kidney transplant (95%) ▲95% in heart transplant (88%) ▲95% in pancreas transplant (93%) which were even higher than data provided by the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS).
Professor Hwang Shin, the Director of the Organ Transplantation Center said, “Organ transplantation requires the most sophisticated surgical techniques because it is directly related to a patient’s life and it needs longer operation and recovery time. It is medical technology-intensive procedure, so the KONOS’ statistical results have great significance.”
As shown in records of ▲Korea’s first ABO incompatible living-donor liver transplantation (Feb, 1996) ▲world’s first 2:1 liver transplantation (Mar, 2000) ▲Korea’s first simultaneous liver-heart transplantation (Jun, 2007) ▲3,000 kidney transplantations in the shortest time (Jan, 2012) ▲Korea’s first 400 heart transplantations (Dec, 2012) ▲Korea’s first 200 pancreas transplantations (Apr, 2013) ▲Korea’s first 4,000 liver transplantations (Nov, 2013), AMC is recognized as a leading medical center in the field of organ transplant both at home and abroad by earning excellent performance in terms of both quality and quantity. Such remarkable achievements are attributable to ▲world-class medical staff ▲systematical collaboration of various departments and ▲excellent facilities and management system.