Feature Channels: Transplantation

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After a kidney transplant, women may experience decreased kidney damage from ischemia reperfusion injury compared to men due to the impact of gender-specific hormones, suggests a new preclinical study and an analysis of patient data published online in the Journal of Clinical Investigation from researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

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A new study from physicians at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, found there may be long-term benefits to simultaneous liver-kidney transplantation versus kidney transplantation alone.

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High-volume lung transplant centers have lower transplantation costs and their patients are less likely to be readmitted within 30 days of leaving the hospital following surgery, according to a new study of more than 3,000 Medicare patients who received lung transplants.

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A complication associated with bone marrow transplantation, graft-versus-host-disease occurs when a transplanted immune system attacks certain parts of a host’s body, and may cause severe dry eye and damage to the cornea. A clinical trial at Massachusetts Eye and Ear showed that topical doses of ultra low-dose tacrolimus, an immunosuppressive medication, is equally effective and showed fewer hypertensive side effects in treating ocular symptoms associated with graft-versus-host-disease than methylprednisolone, a steroid medication that may cause a rise in eye pressure and other ocular complications.

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Bill Spence feels so good since receiving a heart transplant at Loyola University Medical Center that he’s planning to hike the Appalachian Trail to raise awareness for organ donation. Mr. Spence hopes to sign up 2,190 donors – one for each mile of the trail

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Gift from United Therapeutics will establish UAB Xenotransplantation Program and bring additional resources to support the endeavor with a goal of genetically modified kidney transplants taking place by 2021.

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Tector’s arrival will bring the addition of a multivisceral and small bowel transplant program to UAB’s Division of Transplantation.

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Experts from Johns Hopkins, less than a week after announcing the world’s first HIV+ to HIV+ liver transplant, outline the special ethical concerns of such transplants in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

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New research suggests pretreating cells with a peptide hormone may improve the success rate of pancreatic islet cell transplants, a procedure that holds great promise for curing Type 1 diabetes. The results will be presented Saturday, April 2, at the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting, ENDO 2016, in Boston.

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At age 74, Loyola University Medical Center patient Brian Andersen recently became what is believed to be the oldest patient in Illinois to receive a lung transplant. And he feels terrific.As Mr. Andersen’s case illustrates, the upper age limit for lung transplantation has been increasing steadily.

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Loyola University Medical Center thoracic surgeon Wickii Vigneswaran, MD, is chief editor of the definitive new textbook, “Lung Transplantation: Principles and Practice.”

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• Among 10,533 kidney transplant recipients, 57% visited an emergency department within 2 years after transplantation. • Risk factors for emergency department visits included younger age, females, black and Hispanic race/ethnicity, public insurance, depression, diabetes, peripheral vascular disease, and use of emergency departments prior to transplantation.

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In what is certain to be an emotional church service, prominent Chicago minister Rev. Joseph Kyles will return to his pulpit Easter Sunday for the first time since undergoing a life-saving double-lung transplant.

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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.