Organ and tissue transplantation in Latvia.

From 1973 to May, 1996 585 kidney transplantations were performed in the Department of Transplantation. From 1983 to 1988 investigations on transplantation of pancreas islet cell culture were carried out. Because of financial difficulties these investigations had to be stopped. In 1992 a law was adopted which regulates organ removal for transplantation by the "option out" system. In 1996, a transplantation association of the Baltic countries, Balttransplant, which includes the Latvian Department, began to function. Work of this association in the field of transplantation coordination has lead to an increase of donor kidneys and improvement of graft quality. The center performs 14-16 transplantations of kidneys per 1 million of population every year. The patient one year survival rate is 87%, survival of transplants--72-75%. Further progress of transplantation in Latvia will be possible only if the economic conditions and progress in medicine in general improve.