On Patients Who Purchase Organ Transplants Abroad.
Ambagtsheer F, de Jong J, et al.American Journal of Transplantation 2016; 16(10): 2800-2815.
Aims
To present a systematic review on the published number of patients who purchase organs.
Interventions
The databases Embase, MEDLINE, Web of Science, Scopus, Cochrane Central, PubMed and Google Scholar were searched on 17 June 2015 for English-language publications about patients who received organ transplants abroad and/or who purchased organs domestically. Also included were studies among donors and/or physicians who provided information about patients who purchased organ transplants. Two researchers screened titles and abstracts and the full texts of potentially relevant abstracts were examined for eligibility.
Participants
86 articles published between 2000 and 2015 were included in the final analysis.
Outcomes
Primary outcomes measured were travel for transplantation, transplant commercialism or tourism and amount or beneficiary. Other measured outcomes included home country, nationality or ethnicity, type of donation or transplantation, and destination country and number of patients per country.
Follow-up
Not described
CET Conclusions
This is an excellent systematic review of organ trade as reported in the literature between 2000 and 2015. 12,472 papers were identified and of these 86 were eligible to be considered in the final analysis. 6002 patients were reported to have travelled for their organ transplant and of these only 1238 were reported as having paid for their transplant (payments ranged from $10,000 to $200,000 for a kidney transplant and from $40,000 to $300,000 for a liver transplant). China, India and Pakistan were the most popular destination counties for travel. However, purchases were more often assumed than determined. The data from this review contrasts with the WHO estimate of 3000 to 6000 organs traded each year. The authors feel that the reported numbers probably represent the tip of the iceberg, although it is not clear how the WHO developed their estimate. The authors conclude that much of the literature concerning payment for organs is speculative and anecdotal and that more rigorous and quantitative and qualitative research is needed to establish a true picture of the scale of organ trade. The authors are to be congratulated on this attempt to establish the international scale of trade in organ transplants.
Quality notes
Quality assesment not appropriate
Trial registration
None