Organ Transplantation in Hungary Turns Sixty

Sixty years ago, on December 21, 1962, urologist András Németh performed the first kidney transplant in Hungary in Szeged.

The problem of kidney failure was tackled in more and more places in Europe in the early 1950s. With a mortality rate of 90 percent, the disease prompted urologists to use a form of surgical detoxification in addition to conservative treatment. In this way, the first artificial kidneys were created in Europe, of which the modified Alvar device was the first to be used in Szeged.

Kidney transplantation was already proving promising for the treatment of kidney failure. Dr. András Németh and some of his colleagues began experiments on dogs, and in 1962 he was awarded a six-month fellowship at the London Postgraduate Medical School. There, he was the first assistant to participate in a kidney transplant, the fourth in the world.

The Hungarian physician brought Professor Dempster’s method home with him, and based on his experience in London, performed the first kidney transplant in Hungary on Dec. 21, 1962, on a 26-year-old man,

who could only be kept alive by dialysis. The kidney for the operation was donated by the patient’s healthy 21-year-old brother.

Szeged had the 38th kidney transplant in the world and Dr. Németh was the seventh surgeon to perform the operation.

The patient was in excellent condition for 35-40 days, and after a gradual deterioration due to rejection reactions, he died on the 79th postoperative day. Dr. Németh later recorded this in his short novel 79 Days of Hope.

Over the past 60 years, 12,000 kidney, liver, heart, lung, and pancreas transplants, including 775 kidney transplants from living donors, have been performed in Hungary at seven transplant centers. In 2022, there was a record 56 living donor kidney transplants.

This article was originally published on our sister site Ungarn Heute.

Featured photo via Pixabay