title: The "ABO cross-transplantation problem" in liver transplantation in Korea.
abstract: ABO blood group matching policy between donor and recipients is a chief element of organ allocation. However, O blood group donors may donate to all other blood group recipients, and ABO cross-transplantation has led to excessively long delays for blood group O. To investigate the consequence of this problem, we analyzed the recipients/donor rates according to ABO blood groups and cross-transplantation rates among them. Data about deceased donors and liver transplants performed in Korea from January 2008 to September 2012 were reviewed. The proportion of recipient to donor in the O blood group was lower compared to non-O groups (0.61). The percentage of O blood group transplantations in the Korean Network for Organ Sharing (KONOS) status 2B was lower than non-O groups (13.6%). In the status 1 and 2A groups, 44.4% of O blood group donors were allocated to non-O transplantations. Also, 30.7% O blood group donors were allocated to non-O transplantations in the status 2B groups. In conclusion, the ABO cross-transplantation in blood group O donors has led to lower transplantation rates of blood group O in status 1, 2A, and especially, the 2B group. Therefore, the KONOS allocation system should be re-evaluated to address this problem.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: K W
authors.initials: KW
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: You
authors.forename: S W
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Suh
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Hong
authors.forename: O K
authors.initials: OK
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: N J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Yi
authors.forename: K S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Suh
mesh_terms: D000017:ABO Blood-Group System / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D016031:Liver Transplantation; D056910:Republic of Korea
chemical_list: D000017:ABO Blood-Group System