The organization of Kidney Transplantation Services at Ramathibodi Hospital: fourteen years experience on waiting list, kidney donors and kidney transplantation.

The Kidney Transplantation Program at Ramathibodi Hospital was established in 1985. By the end of 1998, there were 1,614 patients on the cumulative waiting list. The first kidney transplantation (KT) was started in 1986 by using kidney from living-related donor (LD) while cadaveric KT (CD-KT) was started in 1987. A total of 528 KT were done, 278 cases (52.7%) were CD-KT and 250 cases (47.3%) were LD-KT. Six patients had two kidney transplants. 278 kidneys were donated from 189 cadaveric donors. Fifty cadaveric donors (26.4%) were from Ramathibodi Hospital while the rest were from other hospitals and the Organ Donation Center, Thai Red Cross Society. For LD, 233 out of 250 (93.2%) were from living-related, more than 50 per cent of these donors were from siblings. 17 spousal donors have been accepted for KT at Ramathibodi Hospital since 1997. Concerning the recipient pools, 522 patients (32.3%) were transplanted, 123 patients (7.6%) died without KT, 111 patients (6.9%) underwent KT at other hospitals, and 78 patients (4.8%) changed to waiting lists at other hospitals. The rest were lost to follow-up. At present, only 265 patients are still actively waiting (send serum every month). The number of KT and living donors has gradually increased, whereas, the number of cadaveric donors has decreased. However, cooperation with the "Organ Donation Center" has improved the number of cadaveric donation in the last two years. Sufficient organ donations and an active working team will provide a good kidney transplant service for the patients.

Sport eye injury: A case report.

A case of sport injury of right eye due to baseball is reported. The ocular findings include poor vision, fracture medial wall and floor of orbit, traumatic maculopathy, angle recession are diagnosed. The mechanism of injury and the prognosis are discussed. This is the first case report of sport eye injury due to baseball at the Department of Ophthalmology, Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital.

Radius of corneal curvature, anterior chamber depth, lens thickness and axial length: Comparison between normal and cataractous eye in monocular cataract patients.

The authors studied monocular cataract patients in the In-patient section, Department of Ophthalmology, Siriraj Hospital, from 1 st April 1987 to 30 th September 1987 or 6 months, to compare normal eyes and cataractous eyes. A total of 70 monocular cataract patients were studied, 24 female (34.29%); 46 male (65.71%). Cataracts occurred in the eight eye of 48 patients (68.57%), in the left eye of 22 patients (31.43%). Ages ranged from 28/81 years, average 58.06. The mean radius of corneal curvature in vertical meridian of normal eye = 7.76 + 0.29 mm. or 43.50 + 1.62 diopters, of cataractous eye = 7.76 + 0.33 mm. or 43.50 + 1.83 diopters. The mean radius of corneal curvature in horizontal meridian of normal eyes = 7.742 + 0.28 mm. or 43.60 + 1.53 diopters, of cataractous eyes = 7.788 + 0.33 mm. or 43.34 + 1.81 diopters. The mean anterior chamber depth of normal eyes = 2.74 + 0.41 mm., of cataractous eyes = 2.80 + 0.39 mm. The mean lens thickness of normal eyes = 4.30 + 0.46 mm., of cataractous eyes = 3.82 + 0.64 mm. The mean axial length of normal eyes = 23.02 + 0.99 mm., of the cataractous eyes = 23.20 + 1.06 mm. The mean lens thickness of the cataractous eyes was statistically sightfcantly less than the mean lens thickness of normal eyes, (p < 0.001).