RIYADH, 4 August — The number of kidney patients on dialysis in the Kingdom has shot up by 37 percent during the last four years — from 4,189 in 1997 to 6,694 last year. Of these, about 40 percent were on the waiting list for renal transplantation, while another 20 percent were being evaluated for inclusion on the waiting list.

These and other statistics are contained in the annual report for 2000 released by the Saudi Center for Organ Transplantation (SCOT) and Prince Salman Kidney Diseases Center here yesterday.

The report said: “It is worth mentioning that 65.9 percent of the dialysis patients have hypertension, 17.9 percent are diabetic and 25.2 percent suffer from both diabetes and hypertension.”

It points out that there has been a constant increase in the number of patients on dialysis over the years. As a result, the number of dialysis centers went up from 124 to 130 during the period, although the number of dialysis machines remained the same at 1,394. It is expected that about 10,000 patients would need regular dialysis in the Kingdom by 2015.

A comparative study of the situation during the last four years shows that the number of patients on the “active waiting list” (or those evaluated) for renal transplantation increased from 1,520 in 1997, 2,265 in 1999 to 2,678 last year.

The report said a total of 3,632 brain-dead cases were reported to SCOT from 110 Intensive Care Units (ICUs) around the Kingdom. The total number of reported cases last year reached 364, with an average of 374 cases per year being detected during the last seven years. The male to female ratio was three to one.

Those in the age group of 40 years and below constituted 79.2 percent of the brain-dead cases. Head injuries, accounting for 63.5 percent of such cases, emerged as the leading cause of death.  Other major factors were road accidents (49.2 percent) and cardiovascular causes (11.5 percent). A total of 1,956 living donor and 1,121 cadaveric donor renal transplants were carried out in the Kingdom last year

SCOT also carried out 220 liver, 87 heart and 220 heart-valve transplantations during the year.