Health Minister Nguyen Quoc Trieu has affirmed that his ministry will establish a national coordination centre for human organ transplantation in accordance with the law.

Addressing a press conference in Hanoi on June 25, Minister Trieu highlighted the country’s latest achievements in organ transplantation, including heart, liver, kidney and cornea transplants using organs from brain-dead donors.

The first kidney transplant was conducted in Vietnam in 1992 and 12 years later came the first liver graft surgery.

On May 22 this year, doctors from the Vietnam-Germany Hospital saved seven patients with one liver, two kidney, two heart valves and two cornea transplants using organs from a brain-dead donor.

Meanwhile, o n June 17, 2010, surgeons from the Hospital 103 under the Military Medical University successfully performed the country’s first heart replacement surgery on a 48 year-old-man.

Also in June, the National Paediatrics Hospital successfully conducted a liver transplant for a patient under two years old./.