The 4th National Convention & Scientific Seminar on Organ Transplantation was held from 16th to 18th September 2018 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The meeting was organised by the Society of Organ Transplantation (SOT), Bangladesh in collaboration with the Asian Society of Transplantation and MOHAN Foundation at the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, Dhaka Medical College and Kidney Foundation, Dhaka. Dr. Harun Ur Rashid, President, SOT invited Dr. Sunil Shroff, Mrs. Lalitha Raghuram, and Dr. Sumana Navin from MOHAN Foundation as faculty. The international faculty also included Dr. Jae Myeong Lee from South Korea, Dr. Kapil Zirpe, Dr. Subhal Dixit and Dr. Vivek Kute from India.

      The main plenary sessions included sessions on ABO Incompatible kidney transplants, swap transplants, prevention and management of infections in solid organ transplantation, and rejection. There were also sessions on donation after brain death and circulatory death, and changes in the law in Bangladesh governing organ transplantation. Bangladesh passed the Transplantation of Human Organ act in 1999, which was amended in 2018. Some of the salient points are –

1. Definition of ‘close relative’ expanded to include grandparents, grandchildren and first cousins as potential living donors.

2. Allows transplant of other organs besides kidneys such as heart, lungs, intestines, liver, pancreas, and tissues.

3. Declaration of brain death - Committee of at least three specialist professors or associate professors of medicine or critical          care medicine, neurology, and anaesthesiology.

4. No organ other than eyes and bone marrow can be taken from any brain-dead person if they are aged below 2 years or above 65 years.

5. Punishment (fines) enhanced up to Bangladeshi Taka one million. A workshop – ‘Update on Transplant coordination’ was held      at Kidney Foundation. There were 68 participants for this – ICU doctors and nurses, staff from nephrology & dialysis units.