Demographic and transplantation trends among minority groups

There are a number of real and perceived problems in regard to transplantation in the heterogeneous population such as exists in California, represented by a single large transplant center serving a large geographic region. At least in this region. Asians and blacks appear to be reasonably well represented in access to cadaveric transplantation. The apparent underrepresentation of Hispanics in regard to their expected incidence of ESRD is unexplained but may be reflected by socioeconomic and language considerations. The outcomes in all groups appear very good following cadaveric transplantation, although there is a trend toward a slight impairment in graft survival among black recipients. In a small series of HLA-identical black recipients of HLA-identical donor grafts, there is no evidence of impaired graft survival. This article did not address the rather small participation of minority groups in organ donation, but the large minority population of blacks, Hispanics, and Asians contributes only 12% of the organs donated in our region.