A prestigious national hospital known in Guadalajara simply as the Centro Médico was recognized March 12 for topping its own previous records and those of other hospitals in this country –
as well as the rest of the world – in the number of renal transplants, the large majority from living donors.
“The Centro Médico has taken first place in Latin America for a total of 340 kidney transplants we did in 2016,” said Dr. Eduardo González Espinoza, chief of the transplant division at the Centro Médico Nacional de Occidente de IMSS, which operates under Mexico’s federal health insurance system.
“Not only that, but worldwide, we performed the highest number of kidney transplants per million inhabitants,” he added.
“I want to emphasize that it happened not just because of hard work but because of a very committed multidisciplinary team – the public authorities who support us, social workers, nurses and doctors in many specialties, and so on.”
“We were very happy with everything,” said 44-year-old Guadalajara hairstylist Lizeth Pérez Ezparza, 44, who donated a kidney January 3 for her brother Gustavo, 52, a doctor. Pérez noted that immediately after her operation at Centro Médico, her brother’s surgery began.
The Centro Médico had good post-operative supplies, she added. There was no scarcity of blankets, toilet paper, etcetera, as can happen in other local hospitals. The only negative, said Pérez, was the long wait – a year in her brother’s case, longer in other reported cases. The waits for individual appointments leading up to the surgery were also long, she added – often several hours. But now, several months later, her brother is doing well and is not experiencing the fatigue he did before, which was due to one atrophied kidney.
The state of Jalisco has long been known for kidney transplants, and the reasons are varied.
“Kidney transplants began in Jalisco in 1977, but a doctor who worked very hard in the last few years on the program was Francisco Monteón,” said nephrologist José Luis Montañez. “Also important is Dr. Alfonso Cueto Manzano, a well known doctor in the nephrology investigation unit in the Centro Médico, which collects and sends information,” he added.
Another reason for Jalisco’s prominence in nephrology is that it is virtually the only state in Mexico that keeps good records about kidney disease and transplants. “Only Jalisco sends data to USRDS [the U.S. Renal Data System],” said Montañez.
In addition, Mexicans seem to show a propensity for kidney problems.
“The causes of renal disease are not completely understood,” said Montañez. “But there is a high level in Jalisco. Partly, it’s the reporting. It could also be genetic. It is also because of lifestyle factors, some of which cause diabetes, which in turn causes renal problems: obesity, hypertension, a sedentary lifestyle and the tendency to self-prescribe NSAIDS, such as aspirin and ibuprofen.”
Besides the transplant programs, which exist locally at the Centro Médico and other hospitals, there are efforts at kidney disease education and prevention under way, Montañez pointed out. The purpose is to encourage people to have a kidney-friendly lifestyle as well as to become donors after their death.
“Right now there are some cultural reasons why Mexicans don’t often become organ donors after death. It is different in the United States,” noted Montañez.