Current Status of Clinical Organ Transplantation

MICHAEL F.A. WOODRUFF Emeritus Professor of Surgery, University of Edinburgh This book grew out of a very successful conference on Organ Transplantation held in Kuwait in December 1982. The material presented at the conference has been expanded and brought up to date, and the result is a well written and authoritative account of many aspects of organ transplantation by a distinguished team of contributors drawn from many countries. A unique feature of the book is the account it contains of the development of organ transplantation in the Middle East. Although, as yet, it has been virtually impossible in Islamic countries to take organs after death for use as transplants, it is beginning to look as if this situation may change. Meanwhile, using living volunteer donors and a small number of cadaveric organs sent from other countries, transplant teams in Kuwait and Turkey are obtaining results with kidney transplants which are as good, in terms of both transplant survival and patient survival, as those reported from acknowledged centres of excellence in the United States, Europe and other countries where organ transplantation has been established for many years.