A start in transplantation - abstract

ABSTRACT

In August, 1970, a renal transplant was performed at the Kingston Public Hospital in Jamaica. The patient lived for 21 days, dying suddenly from a complication of the operation but with normal renal function. At the time over 2,000 such operations had been done in the world, yet this was the first in the British Caribbean. Our second renal transplant was done in May, 1972. The patient is still alive and well with normal renal function. The reasons for our regional tardiness in this exciting field of surgery are closely associated with the problems we are encountering with our tranplant programme in Jamaica. A well-run chronic haemodialysis programme with a resident nephrologist must be available to keep the potential recipients alive and relatively fit while awaiting transplantation. With only 2 major hospitals and a poor inter-hospital transplant system, cadaver donors are relatively scarce. A high percentage of potential cadaver donors are lost because of uneducated and superstitious relatives declining consent. The small pool of recipients makes it difficult to obtain a good tissue match. Despite the above, the nephro-urological unit at the Kingston Public Hospital in association with the nephrologists at the University Hospital of the West Indies are now embarking on an active transplant programme (AU)