Photo has been used for illustrative purposes.

Mariecar Jara-Puyod, Senior Reporter

Kidney Paired Donation (KPD) or Paired Kidney Donation (PKD) is seen by specialists as the solution to the global burden of chronic kidney disease (CKD) even as these specialists believe this form of living donor kidney transplant also has challenges, one of which is the need for this to be fully understood and embraced by the medical/healthcare workers, the donors-recipients and their families, as well as other support systems.

The discussions were made possible when the Abu Dhabi Health Services Company-SEHA Kidney Care (SKC) hosted a recent webinar on “Paired Kidney Donation From Theory to Implementation: Local, Regional and International Perspectives” wherein UAE National Organ Donation and Transplantation Committee chairman/SKC chief medical officer Dr Ali Al Obaidli pointed out that while CKD is a “huge burden” and “transplantation is one of the miracles of the century...international collaboration and the continuous exchange of knowledge, best practice, and expertise are integral to the global success of kidney care and treatment methods.”

Among the 1,800 webinar attendees were King Saud University Medical City consultant clinical and transplant nephrologist Dr Mohamed Al Ghonaim, SKC chief executive officer/director Prof. Stephen Holt and The Royal Hospital-Department of Medicine consultant Issa Salmi. They detailed the prevalence of CKDs, frequencies of dialysis and living/deceased organ donations in Saudi Arabia, UAE and Oman respectively. From their presentations, dialysis and organ transplantation have been part of the healthcare system for decades but there have yet to be improvements. CKDs or end-renal conditions exist and remain to be a problem due to exponential rates of diabetes and hypertension. Dialysis is a huge financial load as expenditures may be at Dhs2 million per patient. Registries have to be updated and living kidney donations have to be boosted or encouraged more while expertise and technology are not lacking.

Holt said that according to latest statistics, 10 per cent of the global population (790,000,000 of the 7.9 billion) have CKDs and nine of 10 are unaware they are suffering from these.

In a previous email interview, Mayo Clinic (Rochester, Minnesota, USA) Kidney Diseases consultant Dr. Naim Issa explained KPD/PKD: “Sometimes, a transplant candidate has someone who wants to donate a kidney to them, but tests reveal that the kidney would not be a good medical match. KPD, also called kidney exchange, gives that transplant candidate another option because in KPD, living donor kidneys are swapped so each recipient receives a compatible transplant.