“Iran Model” of kidney transplantation has enjoyed a considerable success in recent years. The Dialysis and Transplantation Patients Association (DTPA) and the Society for Supporting Dialysis and Transplantation Patients (SSDTP) find and register donors and relate them to potential recipients gratis. The Iranian government supports and supervises activities of these non-governmental organizations.
All these endeavors, not only have provided equitable access for everyone regardless of his/her gender and economic circumstances, but also have drastically reduced the cost of transplantation by obviating waiting lists and middle-men. The Iran Model consists of renal grafts from genetically unrelated living donors. Legislation on cadaveric transplantation after brain death was introduced in Iran in the year 2000. In the years 2001, 2002, and 2003; 145, 250 and 166 cadaveric kidney transplantations were performed, respectively. The rate of cadaveric kidney donation in Iran in 2003 was 2.5 per million population (pmp), which is higher than the 0.0 pmp rate in Pakistan. In many countries, however, this rate in the same period was higher than that in Iran, e.g. 49.2 pmp in Spain. Since 2000, less than one percent of total kidney transplantations in Iran have been cadaveric ones. However, this proportion has been increased up to 10% annually now. Indeed, this low-rate of cadaver donation is the most important challenge with which the Iran Model is faced. It is noteworthy that the incidence of trauma-induced brain death in a relatively young age- group (40 or less) is as high as 65% in Iran. More efforts are required in the fields of public education, and governmental supervision to enhance cadaveric kidney transplantation.