Viktor Liashko: Opening a bone marrow transplantation unit in Lviv will increase the availability of this type of medical care for all Ukrainians

The development of medicine is impossible without the development of high-tech areas. It is important to work to make them more accessible to Ukrainian patients. This was emphasized by the Minister of Health of Ukraine Viktor Liashko during the opening of the Department of Hematology and Bone Marrow Transplantation at the Municipal Nonprofit Enterprise “First Lviv Territorial Medical Union”.

“Even in times of war, we continue to develop high-tech areas of medical care. Transplantation is one of them. In just six months of this year, 257 transplants have already been performed. This is almost 70% of the number of transplant interventions performed last year, and more than 80% compared to 2021. In fact, this means that every day two or three patients receive transplantation care. This means that it is becoming more and more accessible to Ukrainians. The number of hematopoietic stem cell transplants is also growing. They are carried out by eight medical institutions in Ukraine, which have performed 157 bone marrow transplants in six months, including 29 for children. The largest number of patients - 35 - received such medical care at the Okhmatdyt National Children's Hospital, 33 - at the National Cancer Institute, and 24 - at the Cherkasy Clinical Oncology Center. From today, the capacity for such transplantation in Lviv is being expanded. I would like to emphasize that the opening of the bone marrow transplantation unit in Lviv today is an event not only for Lviv but for the whole of Ukraine. Given the active shelling and hostilities in the south and east of our country, the expansion of capacities in Lviv is an opportunity to provide medical care to people from all over Ukraine,” said Viktor Liashko.

The total area of the new branch is about 2000 m². It occupies two floors. The first floor houses the hematology department and the day hospital, which consists of 8 wards with a total capacity of 18 beds. On the second floor, there are 9 single boxes where patients will spend one to three months after bone marrow transplantation until the tissue takes root.

The department will diagnose and treat adults and children with a wide range of hematological pathologies. It will provide a closed cycle of care for hematology patients: from initial diagnosis, risk group identification, primary treatment, relapse treatment and bone marrow transplantation if indicated. The department will also provide support for patients in the post-transplant period, including the fight against graft-versus-host disease, such as extracorporeal photopheresis. Thanks to the availability of intensive care on the territory of the department, patients will be provided with assistance even in case of life-threatening conditions.

In December 2021, the state allocated a subvention of almost UAH 30 million, of which UAH 26.5 million was used to provide the First Lviv Territorial Medical Union with all the medical equipment necessary for the department’s operation.

It should be recalled that recently, for the second time during the full-scale war, Kovel conducted a multi-organ donor organ extraction and heart transplant.