There Are 33,784 Functioning Kidney Grafts in Spain: Who Monitors Them and How?

As of December 31, 2018, Spain's National Transplant Organization estimated that there were 61,764 people under renal replacement therapy across the country. Of this population, 33,784 (54.7%) had a functioning kidney graft.

Through the use of a survey to all Spanish hospitals involved in kidney transplantations, we studied the distribution of these recipients nationally, along with who was monitoring them and how. Data collected include the ratio of recipients to transplant nephrologists, median number of recipients followed in each center, and median number of transplant nephrologists per hospital. Of the 806 centers in the Spanish hospital network, 43 (5.3%) were involved in kidney transplants, including 39 transplant hospitals and 4 associated hospitals. The median number of transplants per center was 800 (interquartile range [IQR] = 510-1200). There were 3 nephrologists (IQR 2-5), and the ratio of recipients to transplant nephrologists was 270 (IQR = 190-323).

There were no significant differences in these data between autonomous communities, except in the case of the Canary Islands, which had a significantly lower ratio of recipients to transplant nephrologists (146; IQR = 100-185) compared with the rest of the country (ratio 277; IQR = 207-329; P < .001). Of the 39 hospitals, 29 (74.4%) referred patients to centers that did not perform transplants.

All in all, few Spanish hospitals perform kidney transplants. The ratio of recipients to transplant nephrologists is very high, compelling most hospitals to refer patients to nontransplant hospitals for follow-up. There are important differences in the distribution of recipients in hospitals in the Canary Islands vs the rest of the country, a difference that is undoubtedly attributable to its geographic peculiarities.