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FOR PUBLIC RELEASE: 9:00 a.m. EST, February 16, 2004
ANNUAL HRSA TRANSPLANT DATA REPORT RELEASED
Report Includes Special-Focus Article on Liver Allocation Policy
Ann Arbor, MI — This week the Health Resources and Services Administration of the US Department of Health and Human Services published its 13th Annual Report on Transplant Data, summarizing official and definitive data on solid organ transplantation in the United States from 1993 to 2002. The new Transplant Data Report provides data vital to the entire transplant community, including patients, medical professionals, and researchers in many fields. It was prepared jointly by the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR) and the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN).
The report features 10 chapters written by more than 50 national experts in the field of transplantation, analyzing data and identifying trends in transplantation over the last decade. A special-focus chapter in this year’s report examines the adoption and early effects of a new liver allocation policy, the Model for End-stage Liver Disease and Pediatric End-stage Liver Disease allocation system (MELD/PELD), which was introduced in 2002. All 10 chapters, coordinated by the SRTR, will be published in March in a special issue of the peer-reviewed American Journal of Transplantation.
These chapters provide clinical insight into the extensive series of data tables that form the main reference component of the report. These tables, more than 200 in number, include a decade’s worth of information documenting trends and recent comparisons of the following: donation and transplantation rates; demographic and medical characteristics of donors, recipients, and those on the waiting list; time spent on waiting lists; and success rates of transplantation in terms of patient survival and survival of the transplanted organ (graft). These tables also include information about immunosuppression therapies and cancer-related data.
Key Findings from the Report
- During 2002, more than 24,000 organs were transplanted in the US — nearly 18,000 from deceased donors and 6,600 from living donors. During the same period, more than 6,000 patients were reported to have died while waiting for a transplant.
- The demand for kidney and pancreas transplantation continued to grow, without corresponding increases in the numbers of available organs. As in previous years, growth in the number of candidates awaiting transplantation of these organs outpaced the growth in organ supply.
- Living kidney donation continues to grow in importance: living donor kidney transplants increased from 28% of total kidney transplants in 1993 to 43% in 2002.
- The number of patients awaiting liver transplantation decreased in 2002 for the first time in over a decade. This decrease may be attributable to the February 2002 introduction of the MELD/PELD allocation system, which shifts emphasis from waiting time to severity of illness in the prioritization of candidates for liver transplantation.
Electronic Version
This year, the OPTN/SRTR Annual Report is published exclusively in electronic formats — on a CD-ROM and in web-based forms. The
electronic report improves on the previous paper-based version through ease of navigation, interactive indexes, and new guides and
glossaries. The electronic version includes HTML and PDF versions of all of the data tables and text chapters. The full report is
available at both www.ustransplant.org and www.optn.org; free CD-ROM versions may be
ordered at either web site.
The OPTN is administered by the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), in Richmond, Virginia; the SRTR is administered by the University Renal Research and Education Association (URREA), in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in collaboration with the University of Michigan. Both contractors collaborated to produce this report under contract with the Health Resources and Services Administration, Special Programs Bureau, Division of Transplantation.
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The University Renal Research and Education Association (URREA)
is a not-for-profit organization with a unique combination of
expertise in the design and execution of research studies including
primary data collection and the development of large clinical
databases and state-of-the-art statistical analyses. URREA, in
collaboration with the University of Michigan, is the contractor for
The Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR), supporting
the ongoing evaluation of the scientific and clinical status of all
solid organ transplantation under contract with the U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services (HHS), Health Resources and Services
Administration (HRSA).
The University Renal Research and Education Association
315
W. Huron Suite 260
Ann Arbor, MI 48103
+1 (734) 665-4108
info@urrea.org
http://www.urrea.org/
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