Exchange of Organs and Patients With Foreign Nations During the First 15 Months of Activity of The Italian Gate to Europe

Italy-Greece Cooperation for Transplantation of Medically Urgent Greek Patients: Is it an Effective, Efficient Model?

“…Considering all transplantation centers participating in the agreement, Pisa performed 6, The Italian transplantation centers not parties in the agreement have performed 12 transplants in 2005, 9 in 2006, 1 in 2008, 2 in 2009, and 2 in 2010 using Greek organs. 5 Surplus livers offered by Greece were allocated by the Italian Gate to Europe to the 3 interregional Italian centers on the basis of a continuous rotation model.…”

Assessing the potential of international organ exchange — the Swiss experience

“…However, an assessment of the impact of the FO on the Swiss heart and lung waiting lists mortality was unfeasible because the rate of accepted FO, as compared with the comprehensive heart and lung transplant activity, was too small (5.8% and 2.8%, respectively). Notably, the study by Pretagostini et al, who evaluated the impact of the Italian national coordinating centre for the exchange of organs with other European countries revealed that in Italy, 15.4% of the offered hearts and 7.9% of the offered lungs were transplanted [6]. However, the period assessed (15 months) is rather short, and may therefore provide only limited statistical evidence.…”

“…Yet, little is known about the impact of organ exchange on national transplant programmes [1,5,6]. Thus, the purpose of our study was to evaluate the relevance of the so-called 'foreign offers' (FOs) for the Swiss heart and lung transplant programmes.…”

Medical travel and the sale of human biological materials: Suggestions for ethical policy development

“…While the number of patients who travel abroad to access transplantation or ART accompanied by related donors is unknown, there is evidence of crossborder exchanges of transplant patients and organs in multilateral organ sharing agreements (eg. Pretagostini et al, 2007).…”

“…In practice, this will likely correspond to nations, and sub-regional or regional associations of states such as the European Union. While nations might strive to achieve self-sufficiency within their own borders, this does not preclude collaboration with neighbouring states in an exchange of resources (Pretagostini et al, 2007). In theory, there are no limits to the scope of self-sufficiency.…”