The Mount Sinai Journal of Medicine

 

Volume 66 Number 4
September 1999		 back to contents
'Tis Better to Receive than to Give: The Relative Failure of the African American Community to Provide Organs for Transplantation 273 - 276
Maritza Rozon-Solomon, R.N., AND Lewis Burrows, M.D.
From the Department of Surgery, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY.

Address correspondence to Lewis Burrows, M.D., Department of Surgery, Box 1104, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, One East 100th Street, New York, NY 10029.

ABSTRACT
There is a serious, continuous and increasing shortfall of organs, especially kidneys, for the purpose of transplantation. This shortfall is especially remarkable in African American populations. Because the incidence of hypertension (HTN) and associated end-stage renal diseases (ESRD) is 17 times greater in African Americans, this minority group, which comprises only 12% of the U.S. population, represents 34% of the dialysis population and 30% of the national kidney waiting list. Furthermore, while black individuals comprise 22-24% of kidney recipients, they comprise only 8-11% of donors. Because of the histocompatibility differences between the races and because tissue matching is part of the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) allocation formula, African Americans wait twice as long for kidneys as Caucasians. Also, because they get more poorly matched organs, their kidney transplant graft survival is 10-20% lower than that for other racial groups. The African American community is unaware of the special needs in members of their own race. Steps must be taken to increase minority awareness of the need for well-matched transplant organs and their involvement in the donation process.

KEY WORDS
Organ donation, kidney transplantation, organ transplantation, organ donation by minorities, organ shortage

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