Attitude of physicians towards the follow-up of renal transplant patients : a question survey in Saudi Arabia

الملخص EN

The goal of this study was to evaluate the attitude of the physicians towards the follow-up of the renal transplant patients in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).

We sent a questionnaire to 168 physicians working in 148 active dialysis centers in the KSA.

The study was conducted from JuneOctober 2005.

There were 140 physicians (83.3 %) who answered the questionnaire ; they represented 136 (91.9 %) dialysis centers.

There were 43 (31.2 %) respondents who had a transplant clinic for followup of transplant recipients.

Of the 96 (69.1 %) who did not have a clinic, 29 (30.2 %) claimed expertise for follow-up of transplant recipients, six (6.2 %) had a laboratory set-up to monitor the immunosuppressive drug levels and 40 (44.4 %) felt the need for one.

There were 121 (89 %) respondents who would consider the chronic renal failure (CRF) patients for transplantation because it is the best form of therapy.

Seventyseven respondents (55 %) had a protocol for work-up of the CRF patients for transplantation, 31 (22.3 %) had a coordinator for the work-up of the transplant candidates, 34 (24.5 %) had regular meetings to decide on the waiting list for transplantation, and 51 (37.8 %) had affiliation with, or worked at a transplant center.

Nevertheless, 127 (90.7 %) respondents believed that the results of renal transplantation were good enough to recommend the procedure to all patients as early as possible.

There were 133 (97.1 %) respondents who believed that organ shortage was the major factor for the low percentage of renal transplantation.

Only 52 (37.1 %) respondents knew about the recent regulations established by the World Health Organization (WHO) for organ donation.

There were 63 (48.1 %) respondents who believed that seeking commercial renal transplantation outside the KSA to be unacceptable because of the medical and ethical complications involved.

Many respondents (71.4 %) from non-MOH hospitals, and those who had transplant clinics believed that the tacrolimus + mycophenolate combination was the most popular immunosuppressive regimen for renal transplant patients.

Our survey suggests that the current practices concerning the workup and follow-up of transplant patients in the dialysis centers in the KSA require refinement in terms of the need to enforce the use of a protocol to guide evaluation and therapy in each dialysis unit.