Vietnamese organ transplant breaks through
2025 closed with special imprints of Vietnam's healthcare industry, when the field of organ transplantation recorded a series of unprecedented records. In the context of the healthcare system still facing many pressures, these outstanding achievements not only saved hundreds of patients but also affirmed the steady progress of Vietnamese medicine on the international stage.
Not simply technical successes, organ transplants in the past year have shown the comprehensive maturity of the health system – from professional qualifications, coordination capacity, to the persistent dedication of the team of doctors.
One of the outstanding highlights of 2025 is the strong development of the organ donation - transplant program from brain-dead donors. At major centers such as Viet Duc Friendship Hospital, Central Military Hospital 108, Cho Ray Hospital, many multi-organ transplants have been successfully implemented, helping to revive many patients who are on the line of life and death.
The increase in the number of organ donations shows that the community's awareness of the humanistic meaning of life donation has had clear changes. Along with that is the increasingly complete role of the legal system, coordination and organization of organ transplantation nationwide.
Each organ donation decision is not only a noble sharing of the survivor, but also a premise for the medical team to perform the most complex surgeries in modern medicine.
First simultaneous heart-lung transplant
2025 also marks the first time Vietnam has successfully performed a simultaneous heart-lung transplant. End-stage heart-lung insufficiency patients, no longer responding to medical treatment, have been given a new chance of survival thanks to a surgery lasting many hours, requiring almost absolute accuracy and coordination.
Heart-lung transplantation is a technique only deployed at some of the world's leading medical centers. The fact that Vietnamese doctors master this technique not only means saving patients' lives, but also shows that the gap in professional qualifications between Vietnam and developed countries is increasingly narrowing.
After the transplant, the patient recovered positively, gradually returning to normal life – the result of close coordination between surgeries, resuscitation, immunology and post-operative care.
21 organ transplants in 6 days
In January 2025, Viet Duc Friendship Hospital set a special record: performing 21 organ transplants in just 6 days, including heart, liver, kidney transplants and liver-kidney transplants simultaneously.
This series of consecutive transplants shows the high operating capacity of the Vietnamese organ transplant system, from the stage of coordinating organ donation - collection - transportation accurately to every minute, to the harmonious coordination between specialties in high pressure conditions.
Experts assess this as clear evidence that Vietnam has entered the stage of mastering large-scale organ transplantation – which was once considered a long-term goal of the healthcare industry for many years.
Behind the historic surgeries are thousands of hours of stressful work, sleepless nights in the operating room and the heavy pressure that the team of doctors and nurses faces. In harsh working conditions, they still silently move forward, putting the patient's life first.
On the last day of 2025, Central Military Hospital 108 successfully performed a trans-Vietnam liver transplant to save a patient.
2025 closed not with flashy statements, but with reconnected heartbeats, revived lungs and lives that seemed to have come to an end are now being written.
Achievements in the field of organ transplantation are not only milestones for the healthcare industry, but also a common pride of society - where the intelligence, compassion and persistent working spirit of Vietnamese people have conquered seemingly impossible limits in modern medicine.
From the first kidney transplant in 1992 to now, Vietnam has performed about 10,000 organ transplants, reaching the highest rate in Southeast Asia with more than 1,000 cases per year, many techniques approaching regional and world levels.
Currently, our country has successfully transplanted 6 types of body parts, mainly kidney transplants (8,904 cases), followed by liver transplants (754 cases), heart transplants (126 cases), lung transplants (13 cases), upper limb transplants (3 cases), intestine transplants (2 cases) and hundreds of tissue transplants such as cornea, skin, stem cells.
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