Three decades of progress: Vietnam’s organ transplant journey

More than 500 leading experts, doctors, and researchers from Vietnam and abroad on Saturday gathered at Viet Duc University Hospital in Hanoi for the 2025 International Scientific Conference discussing the role of surgery and organ transplantation in the era of global integration.

Speaking on the sidelines, hospital director Duong Duc Hung said organ transplantation is one of the most complex medical procedures, requiring highly coordinated teamwork across multiple specialties at a very high level, from anesthesia and surgery to pharmacology and post-transplant care. 

Looking back on the journey, especially over the past 15 years, Hung said Vietnam’s medical sector has made remarkable progress. 

“In the past, Vietnam was only on a par with other developing countries, but now many of its medical techniques, including organ transplantation, are approaching the standards of developed nations,” he said. 

“Vietnam’s first organ transplant was performed in 1992 with support from foreign experts.

“At that time, we were learners.

“But over time, Vietnam has achieved full self-sufficiency in the techniques and even improved procedures to suit local conditions.”

At Viet Duc University Hospital, innovations have reduced liver transplant time from 12-14 hours to just 6-7 hours while improving treatment outcomes.

Vietnam has now performed transplants on six types of organs, totaling 9,805 cases with 8,904 kidney transplants, 754 liver transplants, 126 heart transplants, 13 lung transplants, three upper limb transplants, two intestinal transplants, and hundreds of tissue transplants including cornea, skin, and stem cells.

Beyond major hospitals like Viet Duc and 108 hospitals in Hanoi and Cho Ray Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, provincial hospitals and even remote facilities are now receiving technical training for organ transplantation.

Legal reforms needed for organ transplantation

One of the biggest obstacles, according to Hung, is that the law on donation, removal, and transplantation of human tissues and organs and body donation, enacted in 2007, has become outdated given current realities.

“The law was enacted nearly 20 years ago, and many provisions now hinder development,” he explained.

“For example, children are currently not allowed to donate organs, even in special medical cases with parental consent.”

Hung insisted on the need to revise the law to align with modern medical practices and social ethics, creating a more comprehensive and flexible legal framework for organ transplantation.

He added that as per existing regulations, even if a deceased person has registered to donate organs while alive, consent from their family members is still required.

“This is the biggest barrier, causing many precious organs to be buried instead of saving lives,” he said.

Hung also suggested that Vietnam should follow the model of advanced countries where a person’s registration as an organ donor is considered absolute and does not require family approval.

At the conference, Nguyen Trong Khoa, deputy head of the Department of Medical Services Administration under the Ministry of Health, said the ministry is drafting a revised organ and tissue donation law to create a legal framework and add new regulations to increase the supply of donated organs and save more patients in need of transplants.