抄録
Since Emerich Ullmann reported the first case of renal transplantation in the neck of a dog and Alexis Carrel published “the operating technique for vascular anastomoses and organ transplantation”in 1902, it will be a century near future. By understanding the science of“self-nonself discrimination”, the recognition of foreign material, it has become possible for surgeons to successfully transplant a wide variety of organs and minimize the likelihood of immediate or chronic rejection. Major progress in the immune system, histocompatibility testing, immunosuppressive agents, organ storage and the control of opportunistic infections has been achieved during the past decade, resulting in higher rates for both grafted organs survival and patients survival
In Japan, according to the reports of Task Force on Brain Death and Organ Transplantation in 1992, Japan Organ Transplantation Network, non profit organization, has been established in 1995, and the Law concerning human organ transplants was proclaimed in 1997. In spite of public campaigns, distribution of donor card, educational programs for hospital personnel and others, organ transplants, especially liver and heart, are still hampered by a great gap between the supply and demand of donor organs, and patients are still dying while waiting for a transplantation now.
In this issues, we planned the special program, Organ Transplantation Today in “IRYO”, to present the up-to-date information of organ transplantation by the specialists in this field and help you to understand the replacement treatment of a diseased organ by healthy organ and patient's QOL.
