Organ Transplantation

According to the Turkish Ministry of Health, more than 5,000 organ transplants are carried out in Turkey every year - more than anywhere else in Europe and one of the highest rates in the world. Around 75% of organs are obtained from living donors.

The most common transplants performed in Turkey each year are liver, kidney and bone marrow transplants for adults and bone marrow transplants for children.

Each donor candidate, both local and foreign, undergoes a rigorous medical and ethical consultation and evaluation. As a rule, foreign patients must be accompanied by their related donors - up to 4th degree relatives - but there are exceptions. For example, if a patient in need of a bone marrow transplant cannot find a suitable related donor in his/her home country, he/she can use the services of the Turkish National Donor Bank.

Organ transplant surgery in Turkey is carried out according to the latest protocols and using the most advanced medical and surgical equipment. This allows specialist doctors in Turkey to perform organ transplants in a very wide age range. This applies even to very young infants after a comprehensive consultation and assessment involving the parents.

Technological developments in organ transplantation mean that laparoscopic and robotic surgery are now widely used. For example, Turkish surgeons use robotic surgery in kidney transplants. With this robotic technology, it is possible to easily reach areas that would be difficult to reach by hand. This helps to avoid large tissue openings and significantly shortens the post-operative period.

Another rapidly growing field in Turkey is stem cell transplantation. Stem cell therapy has shown good results in the treatment of severe diseases such as cerebral palsy, spinal cord lesions, cirrhosis and some autoimmune diseases. Stem cells help where conventional medicine offers little or no benefit. They are used to replace functional cells that have died as a result of injury or disease. For most patients, it is their only chance of a partial, if not full, recovery.