The OPTN waiting list, 1988-2001.

1. On November 30, 2002, there were 86,452 registrations on the combined UNOS waiting list. Of these, 65% were awaiting kidney transplantation and 20% were awaiting liver transplantation. 2. The majority of patients on the UNOS waiting list on October 31, 2000 were blood type O (52%), White (53%) and male (58%), and awaiting their first transplant (87%). 3. Despite a decreasing trend in the percentage transplanted within one year of listing over the past several years, the percentage transplanted increased in 2001 for all organs except kidney and pancreas. 4. Blood type and medical urgency have a significant impact upon the percent transplanted within one year of listing for most organ types. Patients awaiting heart, pancreas, and intestinal transplants experience the highest probability of receiving a transplant within one year. 5. Death rates per patients waiting at risk have declined since 1988 for most patients awaiting life-saving organs and have remained relatively low for those awaiting a kidney, pancreas, or kidney-pancreas transplant.