Tunisia confirms its proficiency in organ transplant in Africa

Tunisian medicine continues to make great strides. Medical teams at the hospitals of Rabta in Tunis and Mongi Slim in Marsa, on November 12, successfully performed two surgeries. One on heart transplant and the other on liver transplant.

The information was revealed by Director-General of the National Centre for the Promotion of Organ Transplantation Taher Gargah. Suspended since 2004, it is only on April 25, 2019 that Cardiac transplant surgeries in Tunisia have been performed again.

The Director said that “the Tuesday cardiac transplant surgery, the fifth of its kind at the Rabta Hospital, lasted five hours and was supervised by a team of 30 medics and paramedics.”
“the liver transplant surgery was performed at Mongi Slim Hospital in Marsa and took 4 hours,” he said.

He mentioned that the success of the two surgeries, in one single day, “represents a major medical achievement likely to send a positive message about the great skillfulness of the medical staff specialized in organ transplantation in Tunisia”.

Gargah noted that “the successful cardiac transplant is meant to raise Tunisians’ awareness about the concept of organ donation.”

Statistics indicate that Tunisia’s yearly needs of heart transplant are between 30 to 40 operations. The number of patients waiting for kidney transplant surgeries is 1600 patients. They are all alive, thanks to dialysis, Gargah confirmed.