Organ donation in Canada: 233 people died while on waiting lists in 2018

FILE PHOTO - Laurie Skrivan/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP, EDWARDSVILLE INTELLIGENCER OUT; THE ALTON TELEGRAPH OUT; WEDNESDAY, JAN. 17, 2018

Montreal — Surgeons across Canada performed a high number of organ transplant operations in 2018, but supply is not meeting demand, according to new figures released today by the Canadian Institute for Health Information.

The shortage of available organs meant that 233 people died that year while on a waiting list, which by the end of 2018, still listed the names of 4,351 Canadian patients.

“Improved organ donation practices across Canada have resulted in a 33% increase in transplant procedures over the last decade. However, more than 4,000 Canadians are still on a waiting list for a transplant,” said Greg Webster, CIHI’s director of Acute and Ambulatory Care Information Services.

source: Canadian Institute for Health Information. Organ donors in Canada, 2018. Ottawa, ON: CIHI; 2019.

CIHI experts say there’s no disputing that organ donation saves lives. For most organs, patient survival is more than 80% after 5 years.

Donors are needed more than ever now, due to the rising number of Canadians diagnosed with end-stage kidney disease, which went up 32% over ten years.

CIHI experts say there are ways to improve organ donation rates.

‘Donation after cardiac death’ (DCD) has been practiced in Canada since 2006, leading to an increase of almost 430 per cent in the number of DCD organs used for transplantation. The majority of the organs donated are kidneys and lungs.

“DCD transplants of other organs like hearts is a bit more variable due to the complex nature of determining organ suitability for transplantation, says Dr. Jagbir Gill, a transplant nephrologist from the University of British Columbia.

source: Canadian Institute for Health Information. Organ donors in Canada, 2018. Ottawa, ON: CIHI; 2019.

Gill says they hope to see gains in DCD transplants in all organ groups, as experience in the area expands.

There is also progress when it comes to the number of donations after brain death, which increased by 21 per cent from 2009 to 2018. It’s an important consideration, according to CIHI, because one deceased donor can provide up to 8 organs for transplantations.