Fewer heart transplants in Finland than in other Nordic Countries
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Significantly fewer heart and lung transplants are performed in Finland than in the other Nordic Countries.
Whereas 14 heart transplants were performed in Finland last year, the number was twice as high in Denmark, whose population is about the same as that of Finland, and in Norway, which has a million fewer inhabitants than Finland. Sweden, which has a larger population, has the highest rate of heart transplants in the Nordic region.
"The situation is absurd. In other Western countries the complaint is that if only they had more donor organs, they could do more transplants. With us, there would be enough lungs, for instance", says Pekka Hämmäinen a specialist surgeon at the Helsinki University Central Hospital (HUCH).
Four people are waiting for lung transplants in Finland. In the other Nordic Countries, there are 40 people on each waiting list. Between 10 and 20 heart transplants are performed in Finland each year, whereas Norway has double the amount.
"Finns certainly have more cardiovascular disease than the Norwegians do", Hämmäinen says.
Factors that are reducing the need for heart transplants include advanced heart surgery, medication for heart insufficiencies, and pacemakers.
Nevertheless, Hämmäinen ponders how many patients there are hidden away whose need for heart or lung transplants is never assessed.
"In spite of the development of treatments, I believe that we should have twice as many candidates for heart transplants as we do now."
Heart transplants have been performed at HUCH for more than 20 years. Ilkka Vass, 58, got his new heart 18 years ago.
In the mid-1980s Vass was a shopkeeper well under the age of 40, when he unexpectedly suffered a heart attack. A hereditary abnormality in his fat metabolism had raised his cholesterol level to 12.5, and his arteries were getting clogged. Bypass surgery helped for a few years, but a bad case of arrythmia got the doctors to recommend a heart transplant.
The transplant was performed in 1989, and Vass became the 27th Finn to get a new heart.
He felt the difference immediately after the operation.
"When I woke up from the anaesthesia, there was a strange feeling that my body felt the strength of the beat of the heart. I had hardly been able to feel the beats of the old one."
Vass remembers the feeling of uncertainty over the outcome of the operation. However, the nurses helped build his confidence by bringing previous heart transplant patients to talk to him.
The discussions now continue, but the other way around. Ilkka Vass works full time as a volunteer at the Association of Heart and Lung Transplant Patients.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 26.10.2007 - TODAY |
 Fewer heart transplants in Finland than in other Nordic Countries |
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