Abstract
The duty of the offsprings is to preserve the memories about their predecessors. The retrospective review covers the key stages of organ transplantology in Ukraine and mentions the personalities who created these events. Both popular and less-known facts from the life of Ukrainian transplantology founders are described, as well as the results of their professional activities.
Illya Mechnikov (1845-1916) discovered phagocytosis, which has become the cornerstone of immunology. Illya Mechnikov and Paul Ehrlich won the Nobel Prize in medicine in 1908 for their “works on immunity”.
In 1900-1920s, Yevhen Cherniakhivskyi (1873-1938) conducted experimental renal transplantations on dogs, and Yurii Voronyi participated in these operations.
Yurii Voronyi (1895-1961) was the first doctor in the world to perform renal transplantation in the clinic. The operation was conducted in 1933 in Kherson. The recipient was a young woman who suffered from renal failure due to poisoning with chloride mercury. The kidney was implanted into the femoral artery and the vein. The results of the intervention were published in 1934 in the national editions and in 1936 abroad.
Professor Viktor Karpernko (1923-2003) from the Kyiv Scientific Research Institute of Urology and Nephrology conducted successful renal transplantation from a living family donor in 1972 and from a cadaver in 1973. The Department of Renal Transplantation and Hemodialysis staff joined the Kyiv Scientific Research Institute of Clinical and Experimental Surgery, and Association of Transplantologists of Ukraine was established in 1998 at the initiative of professor Yevhen Baran (1932-2003).
The National Institute of Surgery and Transplantology named after
O. O. Shalimov was established on the basis of the Scientific Research Institute of Clinical and Experimental Surgery in 2000; it was Headed by professor Valerii Saienko. The Department of Renal Transplantation and Chronic Hemodialysis in Lviv was established in 1986 at the initiative of the academician Mykhailo Danylenko. Donetsk Transplantology Center chaired by the professor Petro Serniak was founded in 1986. The Center for Transplantology in Zaporizhzhia was established in 1992 and headed by the professor Oleksandr Nykonenko. Odesa Center of Transplantology and Hemodialysis has been functioning since 1997 (headed by the Candidate of medical sciences Viktor Sahatovych). Renal Transplantation Center in Kharkiv was founded in 2007 and chaired by the professor Volodymyr Lisovyi. The Transplantology Center in Dnipropetrovsk was opened in 2008 and headed by the professor Oleksandr Kutovyi.
About140 organ transplantations are performed in Ukraine annually; usually, these are renal and partial hepatic donations from living family donors. Transplantologists and their patients are looking forward to the positive changes and proper implementation of the Law “On Organ Transplantation”.