Barriers to kidney transplantation among adult Sudanese patients on maintenance hemodialysis in dialysis units in Khartoum State.

Kidney transplantation remains the preferred modality of treatment for patients with end-stage renal disease. In Sudan, kidney transplantation accounted for 28% of the total provided renal replacement therapies. A cross-sectional, hospital-based study was conducted in hemodialysis (HD) units in Khartoum State during the period from September 2010 to January 2011. It aimed to determine the main reasons for the currently low renal transplantation rate. Data were obtained by direct interviewing using a specifically pre-coded and pre-tested questionnaire following a pilot study. A total of 462 adult HD patients were randomly selected from the various HD units in Khartoum State; these patients accounted for 16.9% of the total HD population in Khartoum State. The mean age of the study patients was 48.5 ± 23.6 years and 312 (67.5%) were males. Upon interviewing, only 316 patients (68.4%) said that they had been counseled for kidney transplantation. One hundred and twenty-two patients (26.4%) were on the active transplant list; of these, 50% preferred to have their kidney transplantation performed abroad, mostly due to the availability of commercial transplantation and/or a presumed better outcome. The low renal transplantation rate was due to financial constraints in 112 patients (24.2%), lack of medical fitness in 97 patients (21%) and absence of a suitable kidney donor in 92 patients (20%), while 56 patients (12%) were still having misperceptions regarding transplantation and preferred to continue on dialysis. To improve the kidney transplantation rate in Khartoum State, the Sudan program for organ transplantation is expected to take more initiatives to promote and improve the outcome of kidney transplants inside the country and, accordingly, regain the patients' confidence on the health system.