title: [Organs shortage in the United States].
abstract: Since the law pertaining to deceased transplantation was legalized in October 1997 in Japan, 140 cases of deceased transplants have been performed through March 2005. Patients on waiting lists, however, are increasing every year. Meanwhile patients traveling abroad in desperations to require donors also increase. In the United States, over 25,000 transplantations are performed annually. The number of patients on waiting list exceeded 86,000 in 2003. Organ shortages are a serious problem, even in the United States. Expanded criteria donor(ECD) and Model for endstage liver disease (MELD) scoring systems were implemented to improve some problems in kidney and liver allocation systems, respectively in 2002. Utilization of donated organs for non-citizens is limited in the United States. Japan must independently increase deceased donor transplantations.
authors.affiliation: Organs shortage in the United States.
authors.forename: Masahiro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hattori
authors.forename: Yuichi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Iwaki
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D014019:Tissue Donors / Q000600:supply & distribution*; D014481:United States