Sammendrag
Title: Organ transplantation in Norway: An overview with focus on selection for waiting lists.
Background: Organ transplantation is a treatment option for patients with acute or chronic organ failure who will die without medical care. Transplantation is increasing by improved medical knowledge and better surgical methods, and the results are generally improving. The variety of diseases that can be treated this way has increased. The waiting lists are growing and the need for organs is extending. The main source of organs is deceased people but the use of organs from living donors (mainly kidneys) is increasing, and often gives better results.
Method: This is a literature study and the main search is done in Tidsskrift for den Norske Legeforening. Other information is gathered from lectures given at NOROD-seminar in Bergen in February 2008, yearly reports with numbers collected by the transplantation coordinators at Rikshospitalet, and different protocols for organ transplantation.
Results: The indications for organ transplantation and the selection for waiting lists vary by the different organs. The access of kidneys is very much better than for heart, and it is much easier to be selected for waiting list for kidney transplantation than heart transplantation.
Conclusion: The criterias for being selected for the waiting list are less strict for organs with good access, such as kidneys, compared with organs with very limited access, examplyfied by hearts. Organ transplantation is a treatment that gives better quality of life, in most cases improved life
expectancy and is also socio-economically the best solution compared with other treatment options.