A hospital in Izmir is preparing to introduce a Japanese surgical technique that removes the requirement for blood-type matching in kidney transplants. A five-member team from Kent Hospital's organ transplant department will travel to Japan in the coming days for specialized training.
Dr. Serdar Kacar of Kent Hospital described the advance as significant, noting the method will soon be available at the facility. Kent Hospital and Akdeniz University's Organ Transplants Center are already among the pioneers in Türkiye for performing transplants without tissue compatibility, a approach that has shown better outcomes than transplants using cadaver organs.
The need for expanded transplant capacity is acute: roughly 40,000 people in Türkiye are currently waiting for a kidney, and approximately 7,000 new patients with kidney failure join that list every year.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in August 2006, in its own words.