Relevant Issues In Clinical Organ Transplantation

Abstract

During the past three decades, clinical organ transplantation has developed from the status of highly creative pioneering to a well-established and generally-well organized clinical activity performed in a large number of transplantation centers throughout the world. At present, many thousands of organ transplantations are performed each year. Kidney transplantation has been recognized as the treatment of choice in most patients with end-stage renal disease. Heart and liver transplantation are being performed with fastly increasing frequency since their value in the adequate treatment of patients with well-defined forms of life threatening heart and liver failure has been clearly demonstrated. Sound arguments for performing pancreas transplantation in selected patients with insulin dependent diabetes mellitus are readily available. The current experience, insight and scientific knowledge in the vast field of clinical organ transplantation is based on the tremendous effort of a variety of biomedical disciplines, ranging from (immuno)genetics, immunohaematology, immunobiology, (immuno)pathology, cellular biology, biochemistry and pharmacology to several cooperating clinical disciplines such as surgery, nephrology, cardiology, hepatology and endocrinology. Many are the mutual interrelationships between these disciplines, and many other disciplines are contributing in one way or another.