Udine Celebrates 40 Years Of Pioneering heart Transplantation And Surgical Innovation
WORLD NEWS – ITALY: At the Santa Maria della Misericordia hospital in Udine, a packed Sala Pero marked the 40th anniversary of the region’s first heart transplant, performed in November 1985, with a formal review of the Regional Transplant Centre’s milestones and a public expression of thanks to the centre’s director, Dr. Roberto Peressutti, as he concluded his mandate. The gathering revisited decades of clinical activity and laid out a cumulative account of the centre’s work.
Officials and clinicians highlighted the scale of transplantation in Friuli Venezia Giulia, noting that since the first regional donation in 1977 more than 3,000 solid-organ transplants have been carried out, alongside thousands of tissue procedures. corneal transplantation was specifically cited as one of the tissue services that restored sight opportunities for many patients. In Udine alone, teams performed some 800 heart transplants over four decades, a tally presented in the context of long-term institutional commitment and patient care.
Speakers emphasized the centre’s record of international recognition, technical innovation and consistent outcomes, including being described as the leading Italian centre for one-year results. A breakthrough surgery performed in October was singled out as emblematic of recent advances: surgeons combined state-of-the-art support technologies, including a total artificial heart, with a donation after circulatory death protocol to execute a transplant while maintaining a beating heart throughout the procedure — a novel approach reported as an important technical milestone for the team.
The anniversary event thanked donor families, medical staff and volunteer associations for their roles in enabling transplantation across the region, framing the cumulative achievements as the result of organized clinical work, community solidarity and sustained volunteer effort. The ceremony closed with recognition of past successes and acknowledgement of those who contributed to the centre’s four decades of transplant practice.
