Girls less likely than boys to be placed on kidney transplant wait list
4/21/2011
A study published online in the journal Pediatric Transplantation has found that among children and young adults under 21 years of age starting dialysis, girls were 22% less likely than boys to be placed on the waiting list for a new organ.
The study, conducted by the UC Davis School of Medicine, found that girls were less likely to have been placed on the wait list to receive a new kidney at dialysis initiation, six months after starting dialysis, and even 12 months after starting dialysis. There were no other readily apparent factors that would account for girls not being wait-listed as frequently as boys, such as medical reasons or family preference, the researchers said. The study also notes that girls were less likely to have a living-related donor and also were less likely to have pre-emptive transplants than boys. The reason most often given for why girls were not placed on the wait list at every point in time was that their “work-up was in progress,” the authors reported.
In December 2010, researchers at UC Davis published a study that found that the longer a child is on dialysis while awaiting a kidney transplant, the greater the likelihood that he or she will experience graft failure and organ rejection once they do receive a kidney transplant.
The lead author for that study, Lavjay Butani, professor of pediatric nephrology in the UC Davis School of Medicine and chief of pediatric nephrology, said that the findings suggest that, as is the case in adults, whenever possible children should not be placed on certain types of dialysis prior to transplantation and that the duration of dialysis should be minimized.
http://www.nephronline.com/news.asp?N_ID=4585
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