Waiting list for kidney transplant. Some patients wait too long
Curtoni, E.S.; Magistroni, P.; Fasano, M.E.; Praticò, L.; Roggero, S.
Journal of Biological Regulators and Homeostatic Agents 13(1): 37-41
1999
ISSN/ISBN: 0393-974X PMID: 10432440 Document Number: 499623
The selection of a kidney graft recipient should be made not only taking into account biological and clinical parameters, for assuring the maximum possible clinical success; the ethical objective to allow every patient equal opportunity of receiving a transplant should also be pursued. In every waiting list of transplant candidates a proportion of patients remains in the list for a particularly long time. The present analysis aimed to find out the factors associated with a prolonged waiting time, in order to allow the implementation of patient selection criteria able to balance unfavourable factors. The analysis of the waiting list of our kidney transplant centre allowed to observe that blood group 0, anti-HLA immunisation, presence of rare HLA antigens and, at a lesser extent, HLA homozygosity are associated with a longer waiting time for a kidney transplant.