Allocation of resources for organ transplantation

Over the last 6 decades, organ transplantation has achieved great success to become standard therapy for the treatment of patients with end-stage organ failure. With this success has emerged candidate wait lists that greatly outnumber the current supply of deceased donor organs. The increasing number of candidates and transplants performed has resulted in an organ allocation process that occurs at a local, regional, and sometimes national level. A brief description of the history is presented as well as the methodologies involved in allocation of a donor organ to a single recipient.