Pediatric versus adult kidney transplantation activity in Arab countries

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the current activity of pediatric versus adult kidney transplantation activity in the Arab world. A questionnaire was mailed to all kidney transplant centers in Arab countries to collect data on the kidney transplant activity in a recent single year. Three thousand three hundred and nine kidney transplants were performed in one year, with a transplant rate of 9.5 per million populations (PMP); 298 were performed for children with a pediatric kidney transplant (PKT) rate of 0.87 PMP, which is much lower than that of developed countries where it mostly ranges from 5 to 10. The pediatric share of all transplants is 9%, which is twice as high as that of European children. Kidney transplant programs in most Arab countries rely exclusively on living donors as there is a severe shortage of deceased donors. 93.5% of all transplants, combined adult and pediatric, were from living donors. Deceased transplant activity in Arab countries accounts for 14-31% of all transplants in the three countries with deceased donor programs. Of the 212 adult and pediatric transplants that were performed from deceased donors in eight countries, only 29 cases were for pediatric recipients. Deceased PKT is available in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), Tunisia and Kuwait. Surprisingly, the PKT share was not better in the countries with higher overall kidney transplant rate and or in those where deceased transplant was available. PKT is still inactive in most Arab countries and mostly relies on living donors. The lack of well-developed deceased donor programs is the main issue to be addressed.