Chronic kidney disease and kidney transplantation

Objectives. To report epidemiology and characteristics of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients and renal transplant candidates, and to evaluate access to waiting list and results of renal transplantation. Material and methods. An exhaustive systematic review of the scientific literature was performed in the Medline database and Embase using different associations of the following keywords: ``chronic kidney disease, epidemiology, kidney transplantation, cost, survival, graft, brain death, cardiac arrest, access, allocation''. French legal documents have been reviewed using the government portal . Articles were selected according to methods, language of publication and relevance. The reference lists were used to identify additional historical studies of interest. Both prospective and retrospective series, in French and English, as well as review articles and recommendations were selected. In addition, French national transplant and health agencies databases were screened using identical keywords. A total of 3234 articles, 6 official reports and 3 newspaper articles were identified; after careful selection 99 publications were eligible for our review. Results. The increasing prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) leads to worsen organ shortage. Renal transplantation remains the best treatment option for ESRD, providing recipients with an increased survival and quality of life, at lower costs than other renal replacement therapies. The never-ending lengthening of the waiting list raises issues regarding treatment strategies and candidates' selection, and underlines the limits of organ sharing without additional source of kidneys available for transplantation. Conclusion. Allocation policies aim to reduce medical or geographical disparities regarding enrollment on a waiting list or access to an allotransplant. (C) 2016 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.