Transplant Statistics: Annual Report

Technical Notes and Analytic Methods
Waiting List Patient Characteristics

The waiting list tables show frequency counts and percentages of certain demographic and medical factors for patients awaiting transplantation at year-end by year. Kidney-pancreas waiting list data are reported starting in 1992, the year the kidney-pancreas waiting list was established. Intestine waiting list data are reported starting in 1993, the year the intestine waiting list was established.

Tables 1.3 and 1.4 show the OPTN waiting list at year-end and selected characteristics for all organs. Organ-specific tables are presented in Table 1 in each of the organ-specific sections.

• Index 6.1    Kidney Waiting List Patient Characteristics
• Index 7.1    Pancreas Waiting List Patient Characteristics
• Index 8.1    Kidney-Pancreas Waiting List Patient Characteristics
• Index 9.1    Liver Waiting List Patient Characteristics
• Index 10.1  Intestine Waiting List Patient Characteristics
• Index 11.1  Heart Waiting List Patient Characteristics
• Index 12.1  Lung Waiting List Patient Characteristics
• Index 13.1  Heart-Lung Waiting List Patient Characteristics

These data represent patients on the waiting list at the end of each year, according to data available August 1, 2001. The OPTN members have direct responsibility for submitting, maintaining, and monitoring all waiting list data from the time patients are listed until they are removed from the list. These waiting list profiles are based on all information available about these patients, including information received after the date of the snapshot (i.e., December 31 of each year). Patients who have died or who received a transplant before they are removed by the center (usually only a matter of a few days) are treated as being removed at death or transplant. This is different from past Annual Reports. Also, patients on the kidney-pancreas waiting list who have indicated they will accept a kidney without a pancreas are not included in the kidney counts; they are only counted in the kidney-pancreas waiting list totals.

Some patients were listed at different centers for the same organ type or for multiple organs (e.g., kidney and pancreas). The data in the waiting list characteristic tables are not adjusted for multiple listings of transplant candidates. Therefore, the totals reflect the number of registrations rather than number of candidates. See the Data Highlights section for a brief discussion of the extent of multiple registration.

PRA. Peak PRA (Panel Reactive Antibody) levels are shown only for the kidney waiting list. These data are not required for patients waiting for other organ types.

Patient Status. For the kidney, pancreas, kidney-pancreas, intestine, lung, and heart-lung waiting lists, this item reflects the number and percentage of patient registrations listed as either active or temporarily inactive (i.e., temporarily unavailable for transplant) on December 31 of the year examined. For the liver and heart waiting lists, this item reflects medical urgency status categories used for allocation, as well as inactive waiting list status. In interpreting trends in urgency status, it should be noted that urgency status systems have changed over time. These urgency categories are described in detail in the Glossary.

Time Waiting. This item reflects the total length of time from entry onto the list until the date of the snapshot.

Primary Diagnosis. The primary diagnosis of the disease causing organ failure applies to both transplant candidates on a waiting list and to transplant recipients. These data may be obtained from the waiting list, the Transplant Candidate Registration (TCR), and/or Transplant Recipient Registration (TRR) forms. Diagnosis categories for each organ type are broad classifications of the recipients' indications for transplant. Please note that there are no primary diagnoses listed for pancreas and kidney-pancreas transplants. This is because nearly all pancreas and kidney-pancreas recipients have diabetes as their primary diagnosis. Table 2.4 through 2.8 (see Diagnosis Tables) show the detailed diagnoses that are included in each broad category.