Donation and transplantation in Latvia--2006

The 75 kidney transplant operations (32.6 per million population per year) and 2 heart transplant operations were performed in 2006 in Latvia. This represents a slight decrease of 3% compared to 2005. 86 kidneys were procured from 43 deceased donors. There were 46% donors with brain death and 54% non-heart-beating donors among them. During last decade the donor rate increased from 10.9 per million population in 1996 to 18.7 per million population in 2006. In our center patient survival was 93.2% at 1 year and 87.4% at 5 years, and graft survival was 84.5% at 1 year and 72.3% at 5 years. Such transplantation activity ensures mean waiting time of 6-7 months for patients accepted for kidney transplantation.