What is already known about this topic and why is it important?

Within Europe, large differences exist in the rate of performed kidney transplantations from living and deceased donors. At this moment, little is known on time trends in kidney transplantation rates and in transplant recipient characteristics in different European countries and regions. Insight in these time trends might guide the medical community and policymakers on how and where to focus strategies to increase the number of kidney transplantations.

How will you carry out your study?

The ERA-EDTA Registry dataset will be used to investigate time trends in kidney transplantation rates and in the characteristics of transplant recipients (e.g. age, sex, primary kidney disease) in different European countries between 2008 and 2017. In addition, both analyses will be performed for the group as a whole, for pre-emptive and non-pre-emptive transplantation and for transplantation from living and deceased donors.

How will you decide which patients are included in your study?

We will include patients receiving a first kidney transplant between 1/1/2008 and 31/12/2017 in European countries that provided individual patient data from 2008 onwards. Patients who indicated that their data shouldn’t be used for research will be excluded.

How many patients do you anticipate including?

We anticipate to include about 136.000 patients receiving a first kidney transplant between 2008 and 2017 from the participating countries in Europe.

For how long will you follow up these patients?

Not applicable. We will only look at the year of kidney transplantation and the transplant recipient characteristics at that time.

What new information will your study generate and how will this benefit patients?

Time trends in kidney transplantation rates and in transplant recipient characteristics in these subgroups have not previously been studied for a large number of European countries. Insights in these time trends might guide the medical community and policymakers on how and where to focus strategies to increase the number of kidney transplantations.