HHS Press Release: Organ transplant
recipients' survival rates improve nationwide.
December 11, 1997
Date posted on the Web: December
12, 1997
The Department of Health and Human
Services today released The 1997 Report of Center Specific
Graft and Patient Survival Rates, showing overall survival
rates for transplant recipients are at an all-time high. Kidney
recipients lead the one year patient survival rate with 94.3
percent followed by pancreas recipients at 91.1 percent.
The study of more than 97,000 transplants
also shows that patients who survive the first year post-transplant
have excellent long-term prospects. For this group, three-year
patient survivals range from 75.9 percent for lung recipients,
to 81.2 percent for heart-lung, to more than 90 percent for
kidney, liver, heart and pancreas.
For the first time, the tri-annual
report analyzed survival rates separately for patients transplanted
from January 1988 to April 1992 and those patients transplanted
from May 1992 to 1994. The report shows a significant increase
in one-year survival rates for more recent transplants. The
greatest increases are seen in one-year graft survival rates
for heart-lung, lung, and liver transplants, up seven to 12
percentage points for patients in 1992- 94 over the rates for
patients in 1988-92.
Unique among medical reports in
the volume of data collected, this report compares the actual
graft and patient survival rates at each transplant program
to its expected survival rates. More than 90 percent of the
transplant programs equaled or exceeded their three-year conditional
survival rate. The report includes a narrative written by each
transplant program about its data.
"This report with data on nearly
100,000 transplants is a clear indication that transplantation
is a life-saving treatment," said Claude Earl Fox, M.D.,
M.P.H., acting administrator of HHS' Health Resources and Services
Administration. "Information like this is important in
helping patients make informed medical decisions in consultation
with their physicians."
When reviewing transplant centers,
patients consider the experience, training and education of
the transplant team and the medical and nursing care available
throughout the transplant process. Other factors they examine
include transplant procedure costs, physician services, hospitalization
and medications. Distance to and from the transplant center
and how easily the transplant center can be reached are also
points to ponder. Friends and family available to the patient
for assistance before, during and after the transplant along
with the support facilities are another part of the decision
when choosing a transplant center.
HRSA is the HHS agency that oversees
operation of the national Organ Procurement and Transplantation
Network and the U.S. Scientific Registry for Transplant Recipients
with its contractor, the United Network for Organ Sharing.
"With the success of organ
transplantation, the need for organs is growing much faster
than the number of donated organs. The waiting list is now
more than 55,000," said Dr. Fox. "We hope this report
will remind the public to choose donation and to tell their
families, so that the families will not have any question about
their decision."
Information in the report is also
used by UNOS to evaluate centers with below-expected outcomes.
Following the 1991 and 1994 release of the report, the UNOS
Membership and Professional Standards committee developed objective
criteria to determine which programs should be reviewed because
of lower-than-expected actual survival rates. The 1997 report
identifies 15 kidney programs, 13 liver programs and 15 heart
programs with less than expected graft survival rates in both
report periods.
The 1997 Report of Center-Specific
Graft and Patient Survival Rates is available through UNOS.
The report can be accessed from UNOS' Web site at: www.unos.org.
Copies of the entire nine volume report or volumes for each
organ can also be obtained through the UNOS Resource Distribution
Center at (804) 330-8541. Patients may obtain copies of data,
along with a User's Guide, for up to ten centers at no charge
by calling (888) TX-INFO1.
Note: HHS press releases are available
on the World Wide Web at: http://www.dhhs.gov.
Editor's Note: Four important definitions
regarding the report follow: Patient survival: how long the
patient lives after receiving a transplant. Graft survival:
how long the transplanted organ functions. Conditional three-year
survival rates: the three-year survival rate for those who
survived at least one year following the transplant. This rate
permits assessment of factors that affect long-term survival
Expected survival rate: the overall national survival rate
for transplants that involved the same recipient and donor
characteristics as those observed at that program during the
period for the study. Characteristics that are taken into account
include type of transplant, cause of recipient's organ failure,
recipient medical urgency status and various donor and recipient
demographics.
