South Korea’s Asan Medical Center (AMC) has given new life to 25,000 patients with organ failure by performing organ transplantations over the past 30 years.

According to AMC on Thursday, its Organ Transplantation Center has performed over 25,000 organ transplantations since 1990, including liver, heart, kidney, lung, pancreas, cornea, and bone marrow.

The one-year survival rates after transplantation stand at 98.5 percent for kidneys, 98 percent for livers, 95 percent for hearts, and 80 percent for lungs, showcasing outcomes on par with or surpassing those of leading organ transplantation centers worldwide, according to the medical center.

According to data from the National Institute of Organ, Tissue, and Blood Management (KONOS), AMC conducts 20 percent of the entire organ transplantations performed annually in Korea. It also oversees one out of every three liver transplantations, and one out of every five heart, kidney, and lung transplantations nationwide.

Among the organ transplantations performed at the hospital, liver transplantation accounts for the largest proportion, with more than 8,500 surgeries performed and survival rates of 98 percent at one year, 90 percent at three years, and 89 percent at ten years, showcasing some of the best results globally.

Noteworthy recipients of liver transplantation from AMC include the longest-surviving recipient in Korea who received partial liver in 1992 at age 42, the first pediatric living-donor liver recipient (in 1994 at 9 months), the first adult living-donor liver recipient (in 1997 at 38), the world‘s first modified right-lobe liver recipient (in 1999 at 41), and the world’s first living-donor liver recipient from two donors (in 2000 at 49).

“The driving force behind our ability to provide noble lives to 25,000 patients to date was the sense of mission to save even the most critically ill patients,” said Hwang Shin, director of the AMC Organ Transplantation Center and professor of Liver Transplantation and Hepatobiliary Surgery Division. “Our organ transplantation has now reached a global standard through our relentless research and challenges driven by the determination to save lives. We will continue our efforts to enable many patients with organ failure to live a high-quality life for many years to come.”



AMC has also performed more than 900 heart transplantations since 1992, starting with a patient with end-stage cardiomyopathy, a record for the most heart transplantations in Korea. The survival rates stand at 95 percent at one year, 86 percent at five years, and 76 percent at ten years, significantly surpassing the global average survival rates reported by the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation (ISHLT).

Heart transplantation typically involves a lengthy waiting period due to the requirement for donations from brain-dead individuals. To address this challenge, AMC has been focusing on implanting left ventricular assist devices (LVADs), which serve as artificial hearts, in patients who require prolonged medication to sustain life. These devices help prevent the patients’ symptom deterioration and improve their quality of life. Over 100 LVAD implantations have been conducted to date.

AMC has also performed over 400 kidney transplantations every year since 2015, totaling over 7,500 procedures.

Since the first lung transplantation for a patient with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis using lungs from a brain-dead individual in 2008, AMC has conducted over 250 lung transplantations to date.

By Pulse

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