ABSTRACT
The donor organ shortage continues to be the most pressing issue in kidney transplantation today. It is known that a transplant provides longer survival and better quality of life than dialysis (1-3). Thus, each year more patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) opt for a transplant, and each year, more patients go on the deceased donor (DD) waiting list than actually receive a DD graft (4). Therefore, the waiting list continues to grow and, consequently, the waiting time is longer. Currently, the median waiting time for a DD transplant is about five years and is expected to become longer (4); moreover, about 7% of wait-listed patients die annually without having received a kidney transplant (5). For the first time, significant numbers of ESRD patients are dying on the waiting list (5). It is unlikely that increasing the number of DD grafts will be sufficient to meet the growing demand of the ESRD population (6). As a consequence, living donor (LD) transplants are being increasingly emphasized and encouraged.
