Gender and racial disparity in peritoneal dialysis patients undergoing kidney transplantation

Patients on dialysis who are women or minorities are less likely to receive a kidney transplant than are white men. Because the authors' renal program serves an inner city area and the majority of their patients are black, the authors retrospectively analyzed patients who were receiving peritoneal dialysis to see if that bias held true. Eighty-nine consecutive patients were studied. Sixty-one percent of the patients were women and 39% were men. The mean age was 47.4 years (range: 15-82 years). Sixty-seven percent of the patients were black, 17% were white, nine were Hispanic, and five were of Asian descent. Despite the preponderance of black and women patients, the majority of the 11 patients who received a kidney transplant were white (64%). Nine percent of the women were transplanted compared with 17% of the men. There was no significant difference in age between those patients who received a kidney transplant and those who did not. No assessment of comorbidity was done. The authors conclude that even in a program in which the majority of patients are black and women, white men are more likely to receive a renal transplant.