Kidney Transplantation in Saskatchewan
About 50-60 people in Saskatchewan are currently waiting for a kidney transplant. On average, they will wait 2.8 years for a kidney — that's 437 dialysis treatments per person. Please offer hope by talking to your family about organ and tissue donation.
Kidney Transplant Assessment
Patients are referred to the Saskatchewan Transplant program by their nephrologist (kidney doctor). The transplant team then completes the necessary assessments to determine if the patient is eligible to receive a kidney. If eligible, this person is placed on a wait list. The average amount of time to assess an individual for a kidney transplant is 1.5 years.
If eligible, the person is placed on a wait list for kidney transplant. While on the kidney transplant waitlist, a patient’s wellness and health continue to be assessed.
The average wait for a kidney transplant in Saskatchewan is 2.8 years. The length of time a patient may wait for a transplant depends on many things: patient health and wellness, time out of country, blood time, sensitization to name a few.
Patients can be assessed for kidney transplant in Regina and Saskatoon.
Options for individuals in need of a Kidney Transplant
Kidney transplants may originate from living or deceased donors. A donor must be a match with a recipient, and this match requires compatibility between blood types and cell proteins.
Please see our Living Kidney Donation page for more information on living donation as well as the national Kidney Paired Donation (KPD) program facilitated by Canadian Blood Services.
Highly Sensitized Patient Registry: This national, kidney-donor, organ-sharing registry provides kidney transplant opportunities for hard-to-match, highly sensitized patients through access to a larger number of potential donors. Highly sensitized patients are individuals with past exposure to foreign tissue through pregnancy, past transplants or past blood transfusions. These patients are at higher risk of rejecting a kidney, and this increased risk makes it challenging to find a match. This registry, implemented in Saskatchewan in October 2013, allows for matches across Canada rather than solely in the province.
Post-transplant Clinic
All kidney transplants in Saskatchewan are performed in Saskatoon at St. Paul's Hospital. After receiving a kidney transplant, patients are supported by the transplant team in either Saskatoon or Regina.
Outpatient clinic visits are essential for the well-being of patients by monitoring the functioning of the transplanted kidney, and by providing social support and medication management support. Recipients of kidneys are followed up weekly for the first several months after transplant and then every 2-3 months for the life of their transplant.
Recipients of kidney transplants require daily life-long medications called immunosuppresants. These drugs are required to prevent transplant rejection. Regular post-transplant clinic visits and a focus on health and wellness also support the success of a kidney transplant.
