2022 Volume 57 Issue 3 Pages 191-197
This report presents the Japanese status of organ procurement from deceased donors for organ transplantation in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan. The Act on Organ Transplantation was established in July, 1997, and amended in June, 2009. After the enforcement of the amended Act on Organ Transplantation in July 2010, the number of brain-dead donors vastly increased. But the total numbers of deceased donors for organ transplantation were almost the same from 2015 to 2018. In 2019 the total number increased to 125. But during the COVID-19 pandemic, the number decreased to 77 in 2020, and to 76 in 2021. In this situation, the numbers of brain-dead donors in 2020 and 2021 were kept almost the same from 2015 to 2018. The Japan Society for Transplantation would like to express its deepest gratitude to those who have expressed their willingness to donate their organs despite the difficult circumstances, to the families who have agreed to donate their organs, and to the medical staff, other related people, and transplant coordinators who have been involved in organ donation in order to respond to their wishes.
