Over the last few years, transplantation knowledge and techniques, as
well as insights into pharmacology, have improved, thus enabling greater
access to transplantation for patients.
The pool of organs for transplantation is stable, and therefore
insufficient to cope with the growing demand. To adjust demand and
resources in the most equitable way, organ procurement and allocation
have been organized nationally and often across borders. The national
and international organ exchange programs were studied and discussed
during the Congress on Organ Allocation, from which this book is
derived.
This book describes the state of the art in the management of waiting
lists and the allocation of organs in transplantation. It includes
chapters on the possibilities of expanding the pool of available cadaver
organs. It also analyzes the results of transplantation of cadaver
organs from older donors and marginal, non-heart beating donors.
Transplantation policies based on the offering of organs by living
donors are also described, as is the impact of delayed graft function on
organ allocation.