Hospitalizations for transplantation have never been as numerous as in 2023. There were 661, or 20% more than the average for 2020-2022, according to new results from the Federal Statistical Office. Kidney transplants are by far the most performed (372 cases), followed by liver (138), lung (69) and heart (63). For heart transplants, the values for 2023 are 77% higher than the 2020-2022 average; for lung transplants, the increase is 56% and 17% for kidney transplants.
In 2023, two thirds of people receiving an organ transplant were men. They were also more represented among deceased donors (61%). On the other hand, two-thirds of the people donating one of their kidneys during their lifetime were women. Men are more often affected than women by diseases that may make a transplant necessary: the most common are heart failure, cirrhosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases and kidney failure. Fourteen children under the age of 15 were among the transplant recipients.
For a kidney transplant, the average total length of hospital stay was 12 days. The other transplants required significantly longer treatment: 29 days for the liver, 44 days for the lung, 50 days for the heart. The proportion of patients rehospitalized less than a year after transplantation ranged from 62% for kidney transplants to 89% for heart transplants. The causes of these rehospitalizations were graft failure or rejection in some 15% of cases on average for the heart, kidney and liver, and in 26% of cases for the lung.
In 2022, each heart or lung transplant cost on average more than 250,000 francs. Those of the liver had an average unit cost of 232,000 francs, those of the kidney 70,000 francs. The total cost of the transplants amounted to 76 million francs. All transplant operations took place either in a university hospital or in the only cantonal hospital that performs kidney transplants.
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