Background: We attempted to determine whether significant racial differences exist between organ donors and transplant recipients in British Columbia, and whether differences exist between individual organ transplant programs (lung, heart, kidney, liver, and pancreas). The design of the study was a retrospective review.
Methods: We used the database of the British Columbia Transplant Society, a provincial agency, for the years 1992 to 1997 inclusive. The outcome measures were a comparison of racial characteristics of organ donors and transplant recipients collectively and by individual organ transplant program.
Results: There were 236 organ donors and 766 transplant recipients. Comparing racial groups between donors and recipients, Caucasians contributed the most donors (93.2%) but received proportionately fewer organs (73.4%, P<0.000001). Orientals donated 3.4% of all organs but constituted 14.4% of all recipients (P<0.00001). Non-Oriental, non-Caucasians (predominantly Asian Indians and Native Aboriginals) constituted 3.4% of all donors and 12.2% of all recipients (P=0.0001). Among the individual organ transplant programs, lung, heart, and pancreas recipients were predominantly Caucasian (148 of 156 recipients). Oriental recipients were more likely to be kidney recipients (19.8% of all kidney recipients) compared with all Oriental recipients (P<0.000001). Likewise, Asian Indians were more likely to be kidney recipients (7.2% of all kidney recipients) compared with all Asian Indian recipients (P<0.0001). Native Aboriginals, however, were more likely to be liver allograft recipients (8.3% of all liver transplants) than nonliver allograft recipients (P=0.017).
Conclusions: In British Columbia, disparity exists between Oriental and non-Oriental, non-Caucasian donors and recipients. Orientals and Asian Indians were more likely to be kidney graft recipients than nonkidney graft recipients, whereas Native Aboriginal recipients seemed more likely to have undergone liver transplantation.