Pediatric Renal Transplantation in Asia

Kim, Ji Hong; Choi, Yong; Kim, Pyung Kil

Abstract

PURPOSE: Renal transplantation which allows children normal growth and development and a return to normal life. is now proven to be the best modality for children with ESRD Up to Recently, the number of renal transplantations in Asia has rapidly increased and the outcome has also improved. This investigation was planned to estimate the current status of pediatric renal transplantation in Asia and to find the keys for better improvement of outcome in pediatric renal allograft in Asian countries. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The participating countries and institutions for this investigation were China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Korea, KSPN (Korean Society of Pediatric Nephrology), KONOS (Korean Network for Organ Sharing).
RESULTS
Many countries in Asia still do not have a well organized nation wide renal transplantation registration system independently in the pediatric field . So it's very difficult to evaluate the real state of pediatric transplantation among Asian countries. According to the estimation with fragmented data from each countries, in the front running countries of pediatric renal transplantation in Asia, about 40 or more transplants were performed in each country per year and the five year actuarial renal allograft survival was around 80% which is similar to that of western countries. But there were large gaps among the behind groups.
CONCLUSION
Vigorous attempts to perform renal transplantation for children especially younger than 5 years old would be encouraged as well as organ donation from brain dead donor and non heart beating cadaveric donor also should be activated to cope effectively with the shortage of living donor supply. Large number of recent reports shows the favorable outcome of pre-emptive renal transplantation, we should make more efforts toward pre-emptive renal transplantation. First of all, in order to improve the outcome and to narrow the gap between Asian countries in pediatric renal transplantation, effective and continuous efforts to establish nationwide pediatric renal transplantation registration program as well as official, nation-to-nation data sharing program should be needed.