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Kidney donation and rewarded gifting: an Iranian model

Nature Clinical Practice Urology volume 4, pages 292–293 (2007)Cite this article

The shortage of kidneys for transplantation is a worldwide problem, and the gap between supply and demand is growing.1,2 Kidney transplantation is the treatment of choice for patients on dialysis, but many die before undergoing this life-saving surgery. At present, Iran is the only country in the world to have eliminated the need for a waiting list for kidney transplantation by the adoption of a rewarded-gifting model for living kidney donation.

Iran also has the largest reported experience of living unrelated-donor transplants,1,3,4,5 which started with the first living unrelated kidney transplantation from a spouse, 20 years ago.1,4 Since then, 2,630 kidney transplantations have been performed in our department alone, 2,273 of which involved living unrelated donors. The results of kidney transplantation from living unrelated donors are similar to those from living related donors, and superior to those from cadaveric donors.

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References

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Author notes

  1. Department of Urology, Labbafinejad Hospital, 9th Boostan Alley, Pasdaran Avenue, PO Box 1666679951, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran simforoosh@iurtc.org.ir

Authors and Affiliations

  1. N Simforoosh is a Professor of Urology in the Department of Urology at Labbafinejad Hospital, Urology Nephrology Research Centre, Shahid Beheshti Medical University, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran.,

    Nasser Simforoosh

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  1. Nasser Simforoosh
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The author declares no competing financial interests.

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Simforoosh, N. Kidney donation and rewarded gifting: an Iranian model. Nat Rev Urol 4, 292–293 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncpuro0812

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