SCOT Data: Organ Donation and Transplantation in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 2009

Increasing the reporting of brain-death cases to the Saudi Center for Organ Transplantation (SCOT), by the donating hospitals in Saudi Arabia, has been a major task of the organ donation program in the center. There were 503 cases reported to SCOT in 2009 coming from 85 donating hospitals. Brain-death was documented in 300 (59.6%) cases. There was no significant change in the demographics of the reported cases. The interviews with the families of potential donors were carried out in 233 of the documented cases. Consents for organ donation were obtained in 82 of the family approached cases. It was worth mentioning that 100% of consents for donation included kidney as the donated organ. Liver was donated in 99% and heart in 94% of the successful cases, while consent for cornea was obtained in only 36.6% of the consented cases. A total of 383 renal transplant operations were done in Saudi Arabia during the year 2009, of which 272 transplants from living donors and 111 transplants from deceased donors.