Waiting lists for transplantation in Italy

To plan health services it is essential to gauge the needs. In transplant field in Italy, the first suitable data for waiting lists were collected in 1998. The data collected by Istituto Superiore di Sanita gave us a shot of patients filed in waiting list at that time. We here analyse more significant data about heart, liver and kidney waiting lists. The situation is very different among north, centre and south of Italy: in South, where transplant activity is low, we found rare transplant centres, and most of patients prefer north centres. In kidney waiting list we found 1100 patients living in southern regions but registered in the waiting list of a different region. These data can help in planning development lines in Italy.