Development of dialysis and transplant activity in the world during the seventies of the 20th century.
Statistical surveys of dialysis and transplantation activities, conducted every year since 1965, and in greater detail since 1971, by the European Dialysis and Transplant Association and, according to its example, also by certain institutions in other countries, are very valuable and serve as a basis for a further development of these activities and for their management in the different countries. Also the firms manufacturing dialysis equipment make use of this information for the planning of their production. The dialysis and transplant therapy in the national range in the rich industrial countries was on the increase at the turn of sixties and seventies. This expansion was enabled by the sophisticated dialysis technique, produced in the factories and by the fact that the governments were taking on all expenses of the therapy. The development of dialysis and transplant activity in the European socialist countries was slower than in the western rich industrial states. It was due to the lack of currency for the import of dialysis technique. As the dialysis technique has been produced in some of these countries from the beginning of the eighties, one can expect the same expansion of the dialysis and transplant therapy in this decade as it was in the western countries ten years ago. The dialysis and transplant programme in the developing countries is negligible because their gross national product per capita is too low. Success of the dialysis therapy depends on the quality of the dialysis technique. It is hardly understandable why less expensive modes of therapy such as home dialysis and transplantation are less frequently used than centre dialysis in the majority of countries.
D003906:Developing Countries; D005060:Europe; D005061:Europe, Eastern; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D016030:Kidney Transplantation; D006435:Renal Dialysis / Q000266:history*; D014481:United States