Abstract
An organ transplant is currently the treatment method of choice for a large number of patients with chronic or acute organ failure. However, the shortage of suitable donor organs poses a considerable problem for transplantation medicine not only in Germany (1, 2). The figure of 3,897 available postmortal donated organs in 2009 currently contrasts with the needs of approximately 12,000 patients waiting for a suitable donor organ (3). At the same time, the entries on transplant waiting lists have increased by about 45% in the last 17 years; this upward trend is expected to continue (4, 5). As a result, the shortage of suitable donor organs means that in Germany more than 1,000 patients on the transplant waiting list die every year. According to the German Organ transplant Foundation (DSO), three times as many people are waiting for a kidney transplant than the number of organs that can be procured (6-10). As a result, on average 3 people on the waiting list die every day because no suitable donor organ is available in time (11, 12).
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