Kidney transplantation is the treatment of choice for the majority of patients with Kidney Failure in an ideal world and is preferred over dialysis on the basis of evidence that demonstrate improvement in health-related quality of life and prolongation of life expectancy. However, shortage of suitable organs remains a limiting factor for program expansion. In Brunei Darussalam, despite having conducted over 16 cases of successful living related donor-recipient kidney transplantation over a period of 8 years, the program is still considered at its infancy state. This review article discusses the evolution of our program and the problems associated with setting up such a nationwide kidney transplantation program and elaborate our plans to increase the scope of services in the future, towards ‘Wawasan 2035’.

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BACKGROUNDThe increased incidence of pyogenic liver abscess caused by Klebsiella pneumoniae (K.pneumoniae) was reported in the recent literature. This study was conducted retrospectively to investigate the clinical characteristics and outcomes of these patients.

METHODSMicrobiological and medical databases of a medical center were searched from January 2000 to June 2003. Eighty-four patients with liver abscess caused by K.pneumoniae were analyzed.

RESULTSIn the 84 patients, 52 men and 32 women aged (58.2 +/- 13.3) years on average, 64.4% had concomitant diabetes mellitus and 23.8% had biliary disease. The most common clinical symptoms were fever (98.8%), chills (69.0%) and abdominal pain (58.3%). 85.7% of the 84 patients received catheter drainage for the abscess. The length of hospital stay was (17.4 +/- 8.7) days. The mortality rate was 7.1%. Older age and presence of biliary disease were associated with mortality.

CONCLUSIONSThe low mortality of our patients was probably related to the high proportion of patients who received catheter drainage. Older age and presence of biliary disease were associated with the mortality.

Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Female ; Humans ; Klebsiella Infections ; complications ; Klebsiella pneumoniae ; Liver Abscess, Pyogenic ; etiology ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Retrospective Studies