Saskatchewan lags far behind the rest of Canada in the number of kidney transplants performed in the province — a situation unlikely to change soon.
A Canadian Institute of Health Information (CIHI) report released Thursday says Saskatchewan had the lowest number of kidney transplants in 2009, at 15.
The news isn’t a surprise — the province’s transplant program was suspended in July 2009 when a key surgeon became ill. It was relaunched in September 2010, but only in limited capacity. Approximately one living-donor transplant per month is being performed in Saskatoon, while deceased-donor transplants are done in Edmonton.
It’s a situation the Saskatoon Health Region and provincial government are working on, said Deb Jordan, executive director of acute and emergency services with the Ministry of Health.
"We’re working together," she said. "Certainly it was good to see the partial resumption for living donors," Jordan said.
"We’re pleased there’s active recruitment that is underway to ensure we can move forward and at some point in the future fully resume the surgical component of the kidney transplant program," Jordan said.
The number of Saskatchewan patients who received kidney transplants in 2009 is actually higher than CIHI’s report suggests, said Jordan, as another seven Saskatchewan residents received transplants in Edmonton, bringing the total for 2009 to 22.
Increasing the number of transplants is a priority, she said, not only for the patients’ quality of life — those waiting for transplants are often on dialysis — but also in terms of saving the health system money.
"Transplant is certainly the preferred avenue of treatment for people with end-stage kidney failure," said Jordan.
Across Canada, there were 3,000 people waiting for transplants in 2009. If everyone on the wait list received transplants, about $150 million would be saved each year in Canada because of lower dialysis treatment expenses, CIHI says.
Hemodialysis treatments cost $60,000 a year per patient while a one-time expense for kidney transplant is about $23,000, plus an additional $6,000 for medication to maintain the transplant.
More recent data shows that in Saskatchewan, there are 96 people waiting for a transplant, the Saskatoon Health Region said Thursday. In 2010, there were 24 deceased-donor transplants performed on Saskatchewan patients in Edmonton — that is, donated kidneys from Saskatchewan going to a recipient also from Saskatchewan. In addition, a further 10 Saskatchewan patients received kidneys from Alberta donors.
However, because CIHI analyzes the number of transplants performed in each province, Saskatchewan’s number will likely appear to be dismally low because those transplants happened in Alberta.
There is "concrete interest" from a number of candidates in joining the transplant program in Saskatoon, said health region vice-president Shan Landry.
"There are plans to fully resume kidney transplants in Saskatoon as soon as possible," she said.
Saskatchewan is also participating in the living donor paired exchange program, which was launched nationally last year. People needing a kidney who have a willing donor who isn’t a match can enter the registry, as Donna Brown and her sister Norma Yorga did.
Brown, a resident of Warman, received a kidney from an anonymous donor on Nov. 29 in Toronto. Yorga donated her kidney to another stranger the next day.
"It’s just unbelievable. I have oomph and energy for the first time in a long time," said Brown, who had been on peritoneal dialysis for more than two years after her kidney function deteriorated due to polycystic kidney disease, a genetic disorder.
She’s receiving follow-up care in Saskatoon and hopes a full transplant program can resume here soon.
"I want a nickel for everyone who has said how great I look," she said. "I have colour. Everyone is shocked at what a difference."
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