to 3.2 in Syria).Average pediatric kidney transplant share was about 8.5% of total kidney transplants (ranging from 3.2 in Iraq to 20% in Algeria).The deceased kidney transplant program is currently available in only 8 of the 18 Middle Eastern countries included in this study.However, a deceased program is active in some Middle East countries (ie, Iran, Turkey, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and United Arab Emirates).Of note, Turkey had the highest kidney transplant rate per million populations per year (39.7),Syria had the highest pediatric kidney transplant rate per million populations per year (3.2), and Iran had the highest deceased donor kidney transplant percent of the total kidney transplants (64.2%).In the Middle East, Iran alone performed 63.5% (888/1399) of all deceased donor kidney transplants and 63.9% (106/166) of all deceased donor pediatric kidney transplants.Algeria had the highest pediatric kidney transplant share of the total transplants (20%).Low health spending, poorly developed infrastructures, delayed referral of children with chronic kidney disease, comorbidities, lack of technical expertise, inadequate pediatric dialysis programs, extended dialysis time, organ shortage, commercial transplantation, and posttransplant infections are the main pre-and posttransplant challenges.The communitygovernment partnership model from the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation in Karachi Pakistan showed that pediatric renal replacement therapy and transplant can be successfully established in a developing country.Conclusion: Although pediatric kidney transplant is active in many parts of the Middle East, it is still inactive in others, mostly relying on living donors.The lack of deceased donor programs in most Middle Eastern countries is a main issue to be addressed to adequately responding to the increasing demand for organs.I have no potential conflict of interest to disclose.I did not use generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process.
Mohammed et al. (Wed,) studied this question.