P

SCStfrN

thilemhTgbA

sphJJrukpcsi

©3

T

REFACE

cEpr

oti

pcgs(i

tticaTo2as

po

PAIN is governed by a political and organizationalsystem that divides the country into 17 Autonomous

ommunities. This has resulted in the National Healthystem, though common for the whole country, transferringo each Autonomous Community the organizational systemor health care, including organ transplants, though organetrieval and sharing at the national level is under theational Transplant Organization.This system has generated increasing numbers of organ

ransplantations rising year by year. Spain now has theighest number of cadaveric donors per million population

n the world. In addition, it has favored local harvesting andocal implantation, and the development of scientific soci-ties and congresses by the individual Autonomous Com-unities. It was obvious that one national society would

ave great scientific impact. The Sociedad Española derasplante (SET) [Spanish Society of Transplantation], isoverned by an Executive Committee elected by the mem-ers together with one spokesperson from each of theutonomous and organ-specific Societies.The Spanish Society of Transplantation arose with the

pirit of joining everyone together to develop ambitiousrojects concerning organ transplantation in Spain. It willold biennial congresses (the next one will be in Madrid inune 2012). The First Congress, held in Seville from 2–5une, involved the topics of acute and chronic humoralejection, analysis of organ transplant registries, renal fail-re in recipients of transplanted organs other than the kidney,idney transplants from expanded criteria donors, organ trans-lant surgery, allograft tolerance, post-transplant diabetes,urrent state of liver, heart, pancreas and lung transplantation,tatistical methods for calculation of graft and patient survival,

nfections and cancer in organ transplant patients, ongoing

2010 Published by Elsevier Inc.60 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10010-1710

ransplantation Proceedings, 42, 2833 (2010)

linical trials in immunosuppression, and analysis of the recenturopean regulations about organ transplants, due to thearticipation of highly regarded colleagues from Spain, theest of Europe and also the United States of America.

One of the novelties in this first meeting was the inclusionf combined-tissue transplants. The presentations illus-rated the great advances in this field, particularly concern-ng facial and limb transplants.

The American Society of Transplantation was invited toarticipate in the Congress and to continue with thisollaboration in the future. We are grateful to the distin-uished members of the AST who participated and pre-ented the HIGHLIGHTS of the 2010 ATC in San DiegoWhat’s Hot, What’s New from the ATC—Basic and Clin-cal Science).

Concerning renal transplantation, one-year but not longerm, graft survival worldwide has improved significantly,hough the data from Spain show long-term improvementsn cadaveric donor kidney transplantation. The findings of aomparative study of cadaveric renal transplants presentedt the Congress using data from the Scientific Registry ofransplant Recipients in the USA and the Spanish Registryf Chronic Allograft Nephropathy in 1990, 1994, 1998 and002, with follow-up to December 2005. Long-term patientnd graft survivals have improved significantly in Spain, aseen from the data presented at the Congress.

Finally, we would like to invite all transplantologists toarticipate in the 2nd Congress of our Society in the summerf 2012.

Guest EditorsManuel Arias

Miguel González-Molina

Dolores Burgos

0041-1345/–see front matterdoi:10.1016/j.transproceed.2010.09.049

2833