Renal transplantation in Turkey.

As elsewhere, organ transplantation commenced in Turkey in 1975, from live renal donors. This was followed by heart, heart–lung, liver, pancreas, cornea, and bone marrow transplantation. Twenty-one transplantation centres nationwide are intensively working in this field. Fifteen out of 21 centres are located in three major cities; Istanbul, Ankara, and Izmir; whereas there is at least one centre in cities like Adana, Antalya, Bursa, Eskişehir, Kayseri, and Samsun. The waiting lists show some 4286 patients awaiting renal transplantation. About 300 living and 92 cadaveric renal transplantations are performed annually. The disproportionate percentages of living vs cadaveric renal transplantation, for the year 2000 were 90 and 10%, respectively. Table 1 summarizes the number of transplantations performed between 1975