SURVIVAL ANALYSIS OF RENAL TRANSPLANT RECIPIENTS IN KERMANSHAH PROVINCE, IRAN

The prevalence and annual incidence of end-stage renal disease among 60 million Iranians are about 15,000 and 3,175 (53 patients per million), respectively. Iran has the most successful renal transplant program in the Middle-East region. Renal transplant rate of the country has reached 24 per million per year. The number of transplantation centers and renal transplants has increased from 2 and 95 in 1986 to 21 and 951 in 1997, respectively. Kidney transplantation (KT) was started in Kermanshah in 1989. Conflicting survival rates of KT in Iran and the world have been reported while, there is no report from Kermanshah. In the present study, the patient and graft survival rates of KT in Kermanshah are reported. This study was performed on 712 kidney transplant recipients in Kermanshah Province and included all KT recipients from 1989 to 2001. The analyzed variables included age, sex, dialysis time, and primary disease. Patient and graft survivals were calculated using Kaplan-Meier method. Survival curves were compared with log-rank test. Data were analyzed using Chi-square, Fisherʹs exact, and Studentʹs t-tests. The survival rates for the recipients with a living unrelated donor at 1, 3, and 10 years were 89.4%, 82.4%, and 61.4%, respectively, and for the recipients with a living related donor were 100%, 97.3%, and 72.6%. Graft survival for the recipients with a living unrelated donor at 1, 3, and 10 years was 85.6%, 77.2%, and 33.3%, respectively, and for recipients with a living related donor was 97.4%, 92.3%, and 60.6%. The rates of graft survival were higher in recipients with a related donor (log-rank, p = 0.0056). Graft and patient survival rates obtained from our study are comparable to the reported results from other units in Iran and some eastern European countries, higher than most countries of the former Soviet Union, and less than USA, Japan, and western countries.