Last update:
09-Sep-2020

The history of renal transplantation from 18 Arab countries will be highlighted. In Egypt, Mansoura led the transplantation program by performing the first two transplants in 1976. The Egyptian experience exceeds 19,000 transplants in 39 centres. Cairo University performed the first unrelated donor transplant in 1980 and the first deceased-donor transplant in 1992. In Algeria, the first two transplants were performed in 1986 and 1987. In total 220 transplants have been performed using live donors and 4 using deceased donors. In Sudan, the first case was in 1974, while overall experience exceeds 1,600 cases. In Iraq, the first case was in 1973 with overall experience of 5,000 cases. In Morocco, transplantation started in 1985. In 2015, they performed 56 transplants. In Saudi Arabia, the transplantation program was initiated in 1979. In total 6,939 transplants have been performed using live donors and 2038 using deceased donors. In Yemen, the first transplant was in 1998 with a total number of transplants exceeding 400 cases. In Syria, the first transplant was in 1979 while in Tunisia, transplants using live donors and deceased donors were performed in 1986 and 1988 respectively. In Jordan, transplantation started in 1972 using deceased donors and the total number of transplants is currently 4,500. In the United Arab Emirates, 160 transplants have been performed using live donors and 2 using deceased donors. In Libya, the transplant program started in 1989 and resumed activity in 2004. In Lebanon, the first transplant using a deceased donor was performed in 1990 while the first transplant using a live donor was in 1992. In Oman, 60 transplants had been performed up to 1998. In Kuwait, the program started in 1979. In total, 2,500 transplants have been performed. In Palestine, the first transplant was performed in 2003 in Nablus, while total experience covers 300 cases. In Qatar, the first transplant using a live donor was performed in 1986 and the first transplant using a deceased donor in 1996. In Bahrain, the first transplant using a live donor was performed in 1995 and a deceased donor in 2001. In total 100 transplants using live donors had been performed and 25 using deceased donors up to the end of 2017. I hope that in the near future, an Arab transplant committee will be established to supervise organ distribution, set up a regional database, raise funds for less privileged centres and support research.

Key words: Cadaver donor transplantation, Living donor transplantation, Transplantation Arabic peninsula, Transplantation North Africa.