Characteristics of kidney transplantation in baghdad: an epidemiological study.

Kidney transplantation remains the optimal therapy for patients with end-stage renal failure. The kidney transplantation program in Iraq has finished its third decade, and this study was performed to assess the characteristics of this program. This study was performed, from early 2004 to mid-2005, on all patients who underwent renal transplantation and were residing in Baghdad. All the subjects were subjected to full examination and detailed investigations at the Al-Karamah Hospital, Baghdad. A total of 512 patients (males, 69.7%), all of whom were residing in Baghdad, underwent kidney transplantation from 1979 to 2005. The donor source was living donors in 55.7% of these patients, living unrelated donors in 42.6% and emotionally related donors in 1.7%. The recipients' age range was from 7 to 64 years with a mean age of 41 years. The patient survival rates at 6, 12 and 18 months were 91, 91 and 89% respectively, while the graft survival rates in the same periods were 89, 89 and 82% respectively. The annual incidence of renal transplant in our study was 15.4 per million people. About 55% of the transplants were performed in private hospitals and 41% in Government hospitals; the others (3.5%) were performed abroad. We conclude that this study is an initial step to assess the renal transplant activities in Iraq, and we hope that this will act as a launching pad for future studies.