International Journal of Organ Transplantation Medicine Editorial Organ Transplantation in Iran before and after Istanbul

Islamic revolution, sporadic cases were transplanted, but despite the high expenses and cultural and language barrier, most of the 114 transplantations performed in this period, were carried out abroad, especially in the United Kingdom. There was no established transplantation program in Iran and those who were transplanted were mostly done on the bases of competition and rivalry, using imported organs from Eurotransplant organ sharing network with sizable expense and guarded quality. The limited renal transplantation activities were completely ceased two years after Islamic revo-lution in 1979, and qualified transplantation surgeons left the country. Iran was suffering from the post-revolution convulsive social status and a cruel devastating imposed war. All the limited resources spent on war, as well as medical manpower and hospital beds. Due to alarming shortage of hemodialysis facilities and equipment, reports of significant number of death end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients became a daily incident. In that situation, any suggestion for establishing a renal transplantation program was considered untimely and luxurious, even by medical professionals. Nevertheless, renal transplantation was the most promising solution to remedy the disastrous outcome of ESRD patients, and proved t