There are currently 7,417 people across the UK awaiting an organ transplant (this includes up to 1600 people who are off for a short time for a variety of reasons). The majority of these (6,639 people) are awaiting a kidney transplant. The remainder are awaiting other organ transplants e.g. heart, lung, pancreas or liver.
Focusing on those awaiting a kidney transplant; there are a total of 1843 people between the ages of 0 and 39 on the Waiting List. This breaks down as 131 aged between 0 and 17 years and 1,712 aged between 18 and 39. This means that those patients aged between 0 and 39 make up close to 28% of the total Waiting List (for a kidney transplant).
The simple answer is there are more people awaiting a transplant than there are kidneys available for transplant. This has been increasing exponentially with each passing year, as transplantation becomes the treatment of choice for most patients with ESRF (who are assessed as suitable for transplantation).
The current AVERAGE wait for a kidney transplant is 203 days (for the under 18s) and 506 days (for the over 18s). Paediatric patients are given priority for a transplant as they (historically) do poorly on dialysis.
Another issue is that with each passing year the number of donors is declining, therefore the gulf between supply and demand widens further.
Projects/Programmes such as Living Donation and Non Heart Beating Donation are slowly addressing some of the organ shortage. (Last year 25% of all kidney transplants performed were from Living Donors). There is still a definitive shortfall.
There are 4 KEY factors that influence how long you MAY have to wait:
If you have a less common Blood Group e.g. B or AB, you MAY have to wait longer. This is because the majority of donors (as is the case in the general population) are from Blood Groups O or A.
It makes sense that both the age/size of the donor and recipient correlate accordingly.
(or the Lucky 6!) You inherit your Tissue Type from your genetic parents (3 numbers from each parent). Kidneys are allocated to patients on the Waiting List dependent on having a compatible blood group and as many of the 6 (if not all 6) numbers matched up with the donor.
This is when your immune system is in a state of high alert due to previous exposure to foreign tissue or cells. Being sensitised i.e. having your immune system on high alert can increase your risk of reacting when you have a transplant. You MAY be sensitised if you have:
This is important when awaiting a transplant as this MAY reduce the number of transplants that might be suitable for you, thus making your wait longer. We monitor your level of sensitisation by taking bloods 3 monthly; thus giving us a graph showing your sensitisation history.
Being on the Waiting List is a lot like the Lottery?! You are waiting for your 6 numbers to come up (sorry, there aren’t any bonus options!!) and praying that you’ll be the Jackpot winner. Your prize? Well, a lovely new kidney, of course!
Keep well, and remember: The Waiting List (especially the WAITING part) is a complete and utter bore. However, like the Lottery you have to be in it (or on it in the Waiting List’s case) to win it!!
Good luck and take care.
(Figures obtained and reproduced with the kind permission of the Statistics Department at UK Transplant, Bristol.)
The National Kidney Federation cannot accept responsibility for information provided. The above is for guidance only. Patients are advised to seek further information from their own doctor.
Page created: 22 January 2005
Last updated: 6 May 2008
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