Feature Channels: Transplantation

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Recently discovered biomarkers may provide valuable new approaches to monitoring immunosuppressive drug therapy in organ transplant recipients—with the potential for individualized therapy to reduce organ rejection and minimize side effects, according to a special article in the April issue of Therapeutic Drug Monitoring, official journal of the International Association of Therapeutic Drug Monitoring and Clinical Toxicology. The journal is published by Wolters Kluwer.

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A surgical team at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas successfully performed a heart transplant on a patient living with a total artificial heart (TAH), a first time event in North Texas. The lifesaving TAH technology, a portable device that pumps blood throughout the body, is used as a "bridge" until a donor heart becomes available.

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Following kidney transplant, patients are routinely placed on a regimen of immunosuppressant medications to prevent organ rejection, which often includes calcineurin inhibitors (CNIs) as the backbone medication of this regimen. However, questions remain about the best use of these drugs to strike the balance between preventing rejection and avoiding drug-related complications.

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Yolanda T. Becker, MD, professor of surgery and director of the kidney and pancreas transplantation program at the University of Chicago Medicine, has been elected vice president/president-elect of the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network/United Network for Organ Sharing (OPTN/UNOS) board of directors.

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Transplantation of the periorbital tissues—the area surrounding the eyes—is a "technically feasible" alternative to protect a functioning eye in some patients being considered for facial transplant, according to a study in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery—Global Open®, the official open-access medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).

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Nationally, more than 15,000 patients are waiting for a liver transplant. Approximately 6,300 persons each year will receive a new liver; 1,400 die waiting. In California, one in four listed for liver transplant will die before an organ becomes available. Fortunately, living donation is now a lifesaving option at UC San Diego Health.

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Someday, cicadas and dragonflies might save your sight. The key to this power lies in their wings, which are coated with a forest of tiny pointed pillars that impale and kill bacterial cells unlucky enough to land on them. Now, scientists report they have replicated these antibacterial nanopillars on synthetic polymers that are being developed to restore vision. The researchers present their work at the 251st National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.

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The American Society of Nephrology (ASN) is one of 16 kidney health organizations uniting to advance new bipartisan legislation that would eliminate barriers to living donation and help increase access to lifesaving transplants. Kidney health providers and patients commend Congress for today’s introduction of the Living Donor Protection Act of 2016 and urge its swift passage to help the more than 100,000 Americans currently waiting for a kidney transplant. The new legislation could potentially save Medicare between $565 million and $1.2 billion over 10 years.

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The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and Nationwide Children’s Hospital announce the joint appointment of Dr. W. Kenneth Washburn as director of adult and pediatric transplant programs at each respective hospital, beginning in March.

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Fourteen-year-old Angelynn Luckado’s cystic fibrosis ravaged her organs, leading to an extensive hospital stay, an extremely rare and complicated transplant, and now a hope for a healthier life thanks to an organ donor.

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Surgical teams at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas transplanted the 4000th liver in the history of the hospital’s transplant program February 3rd. The milestone is a first for any hospital system in Texas and one that only two other transplant programs in the country have achieved.

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Just two years old at the time, Zoey Jones was told she would need a heart and lung transplant for her failing organs, a complication due to the single ventricle heart defect she was born with. She was referred to Nationwide Children’s Hospital where they began to prepare for a transplant, when a second look in the catheterization laboratory (cath lab) led doctors to believe her heart and lungs were strong enough to avoid transplant altogether.

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Johns Hopkins recently received approval from the United Network for Organ Sharing to be the first hospital in the U.S. to perform HIV-positive to HIV-positive organ transplants. The institution will be the first in the nation to do an HIV-positive to HIV-positive kidney transplant and the first in the world to execute an HIV-positive to HIV-positive liver transplant.

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Brianna Lugo, a 20-year-old woman from Lake Villa, Illinois, received a rare living-donor small bowel transplant from her father Dec. 3 at the University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System. Both patients are now home and doing well.

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As patients in desperate need of a liver transplant lay waiting, many livers that might give them a new life go unused by centers across the nation, according to new research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

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Moths sniff out others of their own species using specific pheromone blends. So if you transplant an antenna – the nose, essentially – from one species to another, which blend of pheromones does the moth respond to? The donor species’, or the recipients’? The answer is neither.

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With 56 transplants in more than two years, the UAB Kidney Chain holds the record as the longest living-donor kidney transplant chain anywhere in the world.

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The annual data report from the United States Renal Data System (USRDS) reveals both positive and negative trends in kidney disease in the U.S.

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Inside your bones, a spongy substance called marrow produces the red and white blood cells and platelets you need to stay alive and healthy. When blood cancers and certain genetic conditions damage this marrow, it prevents these blood-making factories from functioning effectively.

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More than 120,000 people are currently on the kidney transplant waiting list, some waiting anywhere from four to six years. Some of those people will die before the new kidney comes. Asking a family member or friend to donate a kidney might be difficult, but it has many advantages without affecting the donor.

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Built environment factors that motivate people to walk and bike vary by income, University of Washington researchers have found. Neighborhood density, accessible destinations and fewer vehicles were associated with more walking and biking in lower-income groups, while neighborhood attractiveness mattered for higher-income groups.

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Year-old changes to the system that distributes deceased donor kidneys nationwide have significantly boosted transplantation rates for black and Hispanic patients on waiting lists, reducing racial disparities inherent in the previous allocation formula used for decades, according to results of research led by a Johns Hopkins transplant surgeon.

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• Among male kidney transplant candidates, prostate cancer screening was not associated with improved patient survival after transplantation. • Screening increased the time to listing and transplantation for candidates under 70 years old with elevated prostate specific antigen levels. • Compared with candidates who were not screened, screened candidates had a reduced likelihood of receiving a transplant regardless of their screening results.

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As the longest surviving single-lung transplant patient in the United States, and the second-longest known in the world, Smith also planned to release a balloon in honor of the donor who saved her life.

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Toronto General Hospital performs world-first triple transplant combination of double lung, liver and pancreas organs simultaneously

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UNC Lineberger researchers say the findings of a new study indicate that activity trackers could be a useful tool for tracking symptoms and physical function

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Seattle Children's researchers discover method to prevent graft-versus-host disease, a dangerous and common complication of bone marrow transplants.

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Native Americans have decreased access to kidney transplants and are more likely to die while waiting for a kidney than whites according to new research. Long-term survival outcomes in Native Americans who did receive a kidney transplant were worse than whites, according to a study presented at ASN Kidney Week 2015 in San Diego, CA.

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NYU Langone Medical Center announced today the successful completion of the most extensive face transplant to date, setting new standards of care in this emerging field. Equally important, for the first time a face transplant has been performed on a first responder – a volunteer firefighter who suffered a full face and scalp burn in the line of duty.

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Short people have several health advantages over tall people, including lower risk for cancer and heart disease, and longer life expectancy. But there’s at least one health-related downside to being small: the odds of getting a lung transplant are considerably lower.

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Kidneys that would normally be made available for transplantation were less likely to be procured from donors over the weekend, and organs procured during the weekend were more likely to be discarded than kidneys procured on other days. The findings, which should influence future policy aimed at improving kidney transplantation rates, will be presented at ASN Kidney Week 2015 November 3–8 at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, CA.

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Adults with kidney failure benefit from cadaveric kidney transplants from infants and toddlers when adult organs are unavailable. The findings will be presented at ASN Kidney Week 2015 November 3–8 at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, CA.

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Compared with recipients of living related kidney donor transplants, recipients who purchased organs internationally were more likely to develop hepatitis C, hepatitis B, and cytomegalovirus, and they were more likely to experience acute and recurrent rejections and surgical complications. Patient and organ survival rates were also lower in “commercial” recipients. Research that uncovered these risks associated with transplant tourism will be presented at ASN Kidney Week 2015 November 3–8 at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, CA.

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Three commonly used kidney function equations yielded discordant results for transplant waitlist qualification in a recent analysis. The findings, which point to the need for revised kidney transplant policies, will be presented at ASN Kidney Week 2015 November 3–8 at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, CA.

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Among kidney failure patients who were followed for 5 years, home hemodialysis patients were 4-times more likely to die than kidney transplant recipients. In elderly kidney failure patients, home hemodialysis patients had nearly a 5-times higher risk of dying during follow-up than kidney transplant patients. The studies’ findings will be presented at ASN Kidney Week 2015 November 3–8 at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, CA.

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A study led by Johns Hopkins researchers has linked the immunosuppressive drug mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) to an increased risk of central nervous system (CNS) lymphoma in solid organ transplant patients

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While recovering from a double lung transplant, outdoorsman Michael Olson set two goals for himself: return to Canada,where he had taken 57 canoe and fishing trips, and catch a big northern. He accomplished both goals, in memorable fashion.

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When it comes to treating blood cancers like leukemia and lymphomas, new research shows that a half-matched donor bone marrow transplant may be just as good as a full match, in the first apples to apples type comparison of its kind.

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More than half of nurses who work with organ transplant patients in the United States experience high levels of emotional exhaustion, a primary sign of burnout, according to a study published by researchers at Henry Ford Hospital. In addition, 52% of the nurses surveyed reported feeling low levels of personal accomplishment in their life-saving work, according to findings published recently in “Progress in Transplantation,” a journal of the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses.

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Clinical trial improves outcomes with safer, more effective therapy

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Infection by virus cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a major complication following kidney transplantation. CMV infection has been associated with increased kidney transplant failure and reduced patient survival. However, a new clinical study finds that age may be more important for long-term transplant and patient outcome.

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UM Transplant Center program is first of its kind in Michigan

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Surgical teams took part in a record-setting day of organ transplantation at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas. Surgeons on the medical staff performed nine organ transplants on seven patients in one calendar day. The successful day of surgeries broke the previous Texas record of eight organ transplants performed in one calendar day, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS).

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Voriconazole, a prescription drug commonly used to treat fungal infections in lung transplant recipients, significantly increases the risk for skin cancer and even death, according to a new study by UCSF researchers.

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• Among kidney transplant recipients, patients with mostly IgG3 donor-specific HLA antibodies had a higher likelihood of organ rejection soon after transplantation. • If rejection occurred in those with mostly IgG4 antibodies, it was usually much later after transplantation.

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Fifty-first transplant means 102 total surgeries have been performed since December 2013 as the nation’s longest-ever chain continues to grow.

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• Most donors and recipients support swapping health information before kidney transplantation, but there was low interest in sharing social information. • Both donors and recipients wanted the transplant team involved in information disclosure. • Most donors and recipients did not think the recipient had a right to know why a donor was excluded from donating.

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The mechanisms that allow the liver to repair and regenerate itself have long been a matter of debate. Now researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have discovered a population of liver cells that are better at regenerating liver tissue than ordinary liver cells, or hepatocytes. The study is the first to identify these so-called “hybrid hepatocytes,” and show that they are able to regenerate liver tissue without giving rise to cancer.