Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi leads UAE in life-saving organ transplants

Abu Dhabi: Since its launch in 2017, the Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi Transplant Center has carried out 941 successful organ transplants with a 95% success rate — higher than that of Cleveland Clinic Ohio, one of the United States’ leading centres.

At a media briefing, doctors revealed that 282 patients remain on the hospital’s waiting list, including 200 awaiting kidney transplants, 50 needing liver transplants, 20 waiting for lungs, and 12 requiring hearts.

Rising demand, limited donors

The centre attributed the backlog mainly to a shortage of living and deceased donors. Patients with blood type O face the longest delays, with average waiting times of three to five years, compared with eight to ten years in the US. Waiting times for other blood groups range from three months for AB to up to two years for type A.

Transplant achievements

Since 2017, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi has performed:

• 415 kidney transplants (182 from living donors, 233 from deceased)

• 402 liver transplants (39 living related, 363 deceased)

• 70 lung transplants

• 38 heart transplants

• 16 pancreas transplants

It has also pioneered complex procedures such as a lung–liver transplant, a heart–kidney transplant, 36 liver–kidney transplants, 16 kidney–pancreas transplants, and two heart–lung transplants.

National milestones

Recent breakthroughs include the UAE’s first “special” kidney re-implant after tumour removal in 2021, the region’s first combined lung–liver transplant in 2023, and the UAE’s first three-way kidney exchange in 2023.

Role of the “Hayat” programme

The hospital credited the Ministry of Health and Prevention’s Hayat programme with driving national organ donation efforts. Since 2017, 1,090 organ transplants have been performed across Abu Dhabi, including 290 this year alone.

Dr Bashir Sankari, Chair of the Surgical Subspecialties Institute, stressed that organ donation can save the lives of patients with conditions such as cancer, heart disease, liver cirrhosis, kidney failure and lung disease, calling the hospital a “pivotal force in advancing transplantation in the UAE.”