title: The European Union Interreg Program: Italian-Albanian experience with kidney transplants.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  A collaboration between the Regional Health Agency of Puglia (ARES), the Italian Ministry of Health and the Albanian Ministry of Health, was realized in 2008. One of the areas of interest was to promote the performance of kidney transplants in Albania by Albanian medical staff, funded with nearly 2 million euros. The program included two major goals: to transmit the required know-how to health care staff and to upgrade the Albanian facilities and equipment to the standards necessary for successful transplantation.
  
  
  METHODS
  During the year 2008, two couples of Albanian patients were transplanted at the Department of Emergency and Organ Transplantation-Urology Unit in Bari, Italy. The surgical procedures were performed by mixed surgical teams, with the active participation of Albanian medical staff under the guidance of the Italian colleagues. The first kidney transplant was performed at the end of January 2008 and the second in June 2008. Both surgical procedures and post-transplant periods were clinically uneventful.
  
  
  RESULTS
  After returning to Albania the trained team started to carry out team-work, preparing the patients for the first kidney transplantation. The first donor-patient couple was prepared for kidney transplantation at the end of 2008. On the 26th March 2009 the first kidney transplant was performed by the Albanian medical team, with the active participation of 2 Italian urologists from the University of Bari.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Appropriate training, equipment, and infrastructure are necessary to build a rational, functional national system for organ transplantation. Continuous exchange of ideas and data on kidney transplantation between Albania and Italy will probably contribute to extend such forms of cooperation to the western Balkans in the near future.
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology, University Hospital Centre "Mother Theresa", Tirana, Albania.
authors.forename: Mustafa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Xhani
authors.forename: Francesco Paolo
authors.initials: FP
authors.lastname: Selvaggi
authors.forename: Michele
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Battaglia
authors.forename: Aurel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Janko
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Grandaliano
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schena
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lucarelli
authors.forename: Stefano Vittorio
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: Impedovo
authors.forename: Pasquale
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Martino
authors.forename: Pasquale
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ditonno
mesh_terms: D000415:Albania; D005062:European Union; D006801:Humans; D007391:International Cooperation; D007558:Italy; D007676:Kidney Failure, Chronic / Q000601:surgery*; D016030:Kidney Transplantation / Q000193:education* / Q000379:methods; D016730:Program Development; D044465:White People