Evaluation of the Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Distribution of Kidney Transplants in the World in 2019 and 2020

Abstract

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 has had adverse effects in every field. One of the affected areas is organ supply and transplantation. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of the pandemic period on the number of kidney transplants in 2019 and 2020 in countries with a population of 40 million and above. Material and MethodsWe evaluated kidney transplants from living and deceased donors reported between 2019 and 2020 from the Global Observatory on Donation and Transplantation (GODT). We obtained the number of kidney transplants in countries with a population of 40 million and over before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. ResultsThe total number of kidney transplants performed in 2019 and 2020 of countries with a population of 40 million or more, which sent data to the GODT database, were respectively: