Urgency priority in kidney transplantation in Rio Grande do Sul

In 2002, it was established a system of urgency priority for kidney transplantations in cases with no vascular or peritoneal access for dialysis. The aims of this article are to describe the system in the organ donation and procurement agency (CNCDO) as well as to show the results to date. We reviewed cases of urgency priority request for kidney transplantation addressed to the CNCDO from May 2002 to August 2005. Within this period the CNCDO received 35 urgency priority requests for kidney transplantation (mean, 1 every 1.2 months). Thirty-one (88%) were accepted as urgent, and only 4 (11%) were refused. Among the 31 accepted, 26 (83%) had the transplantation performed in an average time of 19.6 days (range, 1-90), representing only 3.2% of all cadaveric kidney transplantations during that period.