DF is the new national leader in kidney transplants.

Brasilia 247 - The Federal District is the new leader in the national ranking of kidney transplants, with 51,4 donors per million inhabitants. According to data from the first half of this year from the Brazilian Association of Organ Transplantation (ABTO), the Federal District surpassed the average obtained by Rio Grande do Sul last year and jumped from second to first place in the ranking, with an increase of 1,6 percentage points compared to 2013, when it registered 49,8 procedures.

In the federal capital, kidney transplants are performed at the Hospital de Base, the University Hospital of Brasília, and the Cardiology Institute of the Federal District. This year, 88 procedures have already been performed (eight from living donors and 80 from deceased donors) up to August, compared to 73 (nine from living donors and 64 from deceased donors) in the same period last year.

The coordinator of the Organ Procurement Center, Daniela Salomão, attributes the success of transplants in the Federal District to the procurement teams, responsible for talking to the relatives of people with brain death and getting them to authorize the donation of their family member's organs.

The Federal District (DF) has also managed to optimize the waiting list for those who need the procedure. From 2012 to 2014, the average waiting time for a transplant was reduced by 65,7%, from 23,4 to 15,4 months. Of the total procedures performed this year, in 30% of cases patients were able to find a donor within three months. Currently, there are 159 people waiting for a kidney transplant.

Dr. Lívia Cláudio, the physician in charge of the dialysis therapy unit at HCB and a pediatric nephrologist on the HUB kidney transplant team, emphasizes that the wait for a kidney transplant can be especially delicate for children and adolescents.

"Dialysis interferes with growth," emphasized Lívia Cláudia. "Furthermore, patients undergoing dialysis cannot go to the beach, swim in pools or bathtubs, and have numerous dietary restrictions," she explained.

To improve the quality of life for chronic kidney disease patients, HCB concentrates hemodialysis and consultations with different specialists into a single shift so that children and adolescents can continue attending school.

Currently, there are 32 children on dialysis in Brasília, of which 28 are at HCB, two at HUB, and two are on hemodialysis at a clinic affiliated with the SUS (Brazilian Public Health System). Of the total, four are temporarily ineligible for transplantation, two due to low weight and two due to uncontrolled underlying diseases (lupus and porphyria).

In the Federal District (DF), pediatric kidney transplants are performed at the University Hospital of Brasília (HUB) on adolescents from the age of 14. Other patients undergo the procedure in São Paulo. However, this reality should change soon, as the Cardiology Institute of the Federal District (ICDF), which already performs kidney transplants on adults, is structuring its team to be able to perform the procedure on children. The ICDF is expected to begin performing pediatric kidney transplants through the DF's public health network in January.

With Agência Brasília