(12 October, 2016) The University of Udine exports its medical and surgical ‘know-how’, specifically in organ transplant. The Friulian university has in fact initiated a cooperation with Kazakhstan that will develop into a memorandum of collaboration to train specialists in the medical, surgical, orthopaedic sector and specialised medical assistants. The defining moment of the beginning of this medical collaboration was the first liver transplant from a living donor between from a son to his mother, carried out by a European team in Kazakhstan, among one of the first to be carried out successfully by the surgical team lead by Andrea Risaliti, professor of general surgery of the Medical and Biological Sciences Department and the director of the the surgical clinical and organ transplant centre of the University Hospital complex “Santa Maria della Misericordia” of Udine. The success of the transplant procedure was also due to the innovative techniques adopted by the Italian surgeons from Udine, accompanied by local professionals. The procedure took place on September 23 at the Shymket Hospital, during a mission carried out by a delegation from the University of Udine, in Kazakhstan in the context of plans to expand the University internationally. The university delegation was welcomed by the Italian Ambassador to Kazakhstan, Stefano Ravagnan, to which the results of the visit and future projects were presented. The initiative was borne out of the context of institutional relations between Tuscany and the Independent States Community (CSI). The confederation is composed of 9 to 15 former Soviet republics. The university delegation was formed by Giovanni Terrosu and Dario Lorenzin in addition to Professor Risaliti. The memorandum was approved by the Ministry of Health of Southern Kazakhstan and is borne from the joint interest of the University of Udine and the directors of the department of surgery of the Shymkent Hospital of Emergency Care, Madi Bigaliyev and the National Scientific Medical Research Center of Astana, Abay Baigenzhin. (Red)
