Evaluation of kidney transplantation programmes using system simulation.

In the case of kidney transplantations, there is always a serious imbalance between the number of kidneys donated for transplantation and the number of persons wishing to receive a transplant. This not only affects the quality of life of those unable to obtain a transplant, but it also has important repercussions on the treatment of End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) by transplantation and dialysis. Also there are a number of ways in which the kidney transplantation can be achieved, such as the cadaveric kidney transplantation, live donor kidney transplantation, kidney paired donation and list exchange. A simulation study of all the referred programmes is performed using simulation models developed for each programme to obtain the better estimate of the average waiting time of a patient per year. With the estimates given by the simulation models, the best serving programme for each blood type patient is selected, declared and recommended.