Renal Transplantation in the Middle East: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats [SWOT] Analysis

The first renal transplant in the Middle East was in 1967 1 in Iran. The Arab world followed in Jordan and Iraq in 1972 and 1973 respectively. 3] Living donation is the most widely practiced type of donation in the Middle East. However deceased donation is not well established. Few countries approved laws for deceased donation as in KSA in 1985, Iran in 2000, and Egypt in 2010. The Iranian model startedyears ago is renal graft donation from living, genetically unrelated people. This program had a high volume for donation (17pmp/year). However organs from donation after cardiac death (DCD) can increase the donor pool by 15-25%. The registered total kidney transplants in Middle East countries from January to December 2012 were about 8000 (6611 live donations and 1379 deceased donations). 7