Organ donation and transplatation -
Although the first organ transplantation in Croatia was performed in 1971, ten years ago Croatia was still at the tail end of Europe, with a donor rate of only 2,4 per million population. Early development of transplant surgery techniques in Croatia was not followed by the development of proper logistics and organizational model, which would allow for the organ donation rate to reach the same level as in most developed European countries. Since 2000, however, the gradual implementation of organizational measures and some of the elements of the “Spanish model” has led Croatia to continually increase the donor rate. While the number of donors has been stagnating in recent years in Europe or slightly increasing by 2% per year on average, Croatia increased its annual donor rate in 2010 by 64%, ranking equally with Spain and Portugal as a world leader in organ donor rate. Thus, Croatia has become a role model that other South Eastern European countries want to follow.
Key words:
Croatia; models, organizational; organ transplantation; Spain; tissue donors
