Recent News

New Program and OPO Specific Reports Published July 13, 2010
On July 13, 2010, the SRTR released the newest version of the Program-Specific Reports. Released every six months, these reports provide different measures of performance and characteristics about each transplant program and OPO in the United States, including waitlist outcomes, post-transplant survival, and organ recovery and transplantation rates. View Current Program-Specific Reports for all transplant centers and OPO Specific Reports. 

Please note that expected donation rate statistics are now included in OPO table 3 and 3A.

SRTR Pancreas Donor Risk Index paper published in the American Journal of Transplantation
This article explores the development of a pancreas donor risk index (PDRI) to identify factors associated with an increased risk of graft failure in the context of simultaneous pancreas-kidney (SPK) transplant, pancreas after kidney (PAK) transplant, or pancreas transplant alone (PTA). It also assesses variation in graft use by geography and center volume. A PDRI with 10 donor variables and one transplant factor was created; a higher index score was associated with a significant, graded reduction in 1-year pancreas graft survival. Additionally, pancreas graft acceptance varied significantly by region, particularly for PAK/PTA transplants. More...

2009 SRTR Report on the State of Transplantation now available
The 2009 SRTR Report on the State of Transplantation was recently published in the American Journal of Transplantation (Volume 10, Issue 4, Part 2) and is available online at http://www.ustransplant.org/rotsot.aspx?y=2009. This year's report consists of ten peer-reviewed articles devoted to specific topics in solid organ transplantation. Each article was written by a group of experts in the field of transplantation and provides a comprehensive look at the current state of transplantation and trends over the past decade. The text and figures in these articles are based on SRTR analyses and the extensive reference tables of the 2009 OPTN/SRTR Annual Report.

2009 SRTR ROTSOT Special Focus Article: Geographic Variation in ESRD Incidence and Access to Deceased Donor Kidney Transplantation
The effect of demand for kidney transplantation on access to the procedure is unknown. Using incidence of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) as a measure of demand, this special analysis found that, compared with areas characterized by a low incidence of ESRD, high ESRD areas were associated with lower adjusted transplant rates among all ESRD patients. These results demonstrate that geographic variation in access to kidney transplantation is in part mediated by local ESRD incidence, a finding that has implications for allocation policy development. More...

2009 SRTR ROTSOT Special Focus Article: DonorNet and the Potential Effects on Organ Utilization
Communicating donor data from organ procurement organizations to transplant centers has evolved with the incorporation of DonorNet, an electronic organ placement system implemented in April 2007. The median match number of organ placements in liver and kidney transplantation was not significantly affected by DonorNet. However, noticeable changes in organ sharing were observed: local allocation for kidney and liver increased, while regional and national distribution dropped. Results of this study suggest that DonorNet modestly affected organ placement and use. More...

2009 SRTR ROTSOT Special Focus Article: Access and Outcomes in Minority Transplant Patients
While disparities in access to organ transplantation have been well documented among minority patients, less is understood about differences in their posttransplant outcomes. This article reviews trends in access and outcomes by organ type, race, and ethnicity. A special analysis examines, by race and ethnicity, the relative impact of center-related versus patient-related variables on kidney graft survival. Age and duration of pretransplant dialysis exposure emerge as the most important determinants of survival. More...

2009 SRTR ROTSOT Overview: Living Donor Kidney Transplantation
This year’s ROTSOT kidney-pancreas article includes a concise review of living donation. Despite excellent survival rates, the number of living donor (LD) kidney transplants declined by 10% in 2008, from a peak of 6,647 in 2004. This article details how access to the procedure has varied by age, sex, race, and location over the last 10 years. Also discussed is the striking drop in the number of LD kidney transplant in pediatric patients following passage of the Share 35 rule. The article concludes with a look at the diverse strategies in use to raise living donation rates. More...

SRTR Efficient Use of the ECD Kidney Pool paper published in the American Journal of Transplantation
This article investigates the effect of the expanded criteria donor (ECD) label on the recovery of kidneys and acceptance for transplantation. The sample was split at July 1, 2002 to determine how decisions changed when the ECD definition was implemented. Overall, implementation coincided with the reversal of an apparent reluctance to recover kidneys from donors over age 59 but increased selectiveness on the part of surgeons and centers with respect to these kidneys. More...

SRTR Effect of Pretransplant Serum Creatinine on Liver Transplant Survival Benefit paper published in Liver Transplantation
Relative ranking for wait-listed candidates with MELD scores of 15-17 or 24-40 could be markedly affected by SRTR findings showing that patients with the same MELD score and higher creatinine levels receive, on average, less benefit from transplant. Since implementation of MELD-based allocation, patients who have undergone liver transplantation with pretransplant creatinine levels ≥2 mg/dL have higher transplant mortality. Analysis of SRTR data shows that, given the same MELD score, serum creatinine at liver transplant was inversely associated with survival benefit. More...

SRTR Predictability of Survival Models for Waiting List and Transplant Patients: Calculating LYFT paper published in the American Journal of Transplantation
The extra years of life that a candidate can expect to gain by receiving a kidney transplant compared with no transplant is known as life years from transplant (LYFT). The LYFT component survival models are better predictors of long term survival compared with other predictive equations currently used for organ allocation. The reported validation of the C-statistics and correlations of the three LYFT component equations in this paper could lead to substantial increases in the number of life years gained from the current donor pool if allocation policies were to be based on these survival models. More...

SRTR Alcoholic Liver Disease and Hepatitis C Mortality paper published in Hepatology
Except in patients with very low or very high MELD scores, hepatitis C virus status has a significant negative effect on the survival benefit of liver transplantation. In contrast, the presence of alcoholic liver disease does not influence liver transplant survival benefit. More...

SRTR Kidney Donor Risk Index Quantifies paper published in Transplantation
Unlike the current expanded criteria donor system, which assesses deceased donor kidneys using a dichotomous measure, the proposed kidney donor risk index (KDRI) offers a continuous scale for assessing potential donor-candidate matches. The proposed KDRI includes 14 donor and transplant factors, each found to be independently associated with graft failure or death. The graded impact scale reflects the rate of graft failure relative to that of a healthy 40-year-old donor, making it a useful decision-making tool at the time of a deceased donor kidney offer. More...