Good match not always needed for living donor kidney transplant

Surgeon Zalazun looks at monitor displaying donor kidney for patient Abernathy, who participated in five-way organ transplant swap in New York (Copyright Reuters 2016). Transplanting a mismatched kidney from a living donor may lower the risk of death more than not doing a transplant at all, according to a new study that could open the door to more operations. A long-term study found that transplant recipients whose immune systems were technically incompatible to the donated kidney - because they had so-called anti-HLA antibodies - were more likely to be alive eight years later than people who did not receive a transplant or waited to get an organ from a deceased donor.
"We used to say if you had a compatible donor, you could do a transplant. Now you can say, if you have an incompatible donor, we still can make that transplant happen," senior author Dr. Dorry Segev of John Hopkins University in Baltimore told Reuters Health. "That's very exciting to those on the waiting list." Eight-year survival rates were almost 77 percent for 1,025 people who received an HLA-incompatible kidney from a live donor, 63 percent for 5,125 matched patients who remained on a waiting list for a kidney or received a kidney from a deceased donor and 44 percent for 5,125 people who remained on the waiting list without receiving a kidney. "The paper is showing how much longer the patient will live compared to their next available option," said Segev, who directs John Hopkins' Epidemiology Research Group in Organ Transplantation.

Good match not always needed for living donor kidney transplant

Surgeon Zalazun looks at monitor displaying donor kidney for patient Abernathy, who participated in five-way organ transplant swap in New York (Copyright Reuters 2016). Transplanting a mismatched kidney from a living donor may lower the risk of death more than not doing a transplant at all, according to a new study that could open the door to more operations. A long-term study found that transplant recipients whose immune systems were technically incompatible to the donated kidney - because they had so-called anti-HLA antibodies - were more likely to be alive eight years later than people who did not receive a transplant or waited to get an organ from a deceased donor. We used to say if you had a compatible donor, you could do a transplant. Now you can say, if you have an incompatible donor, we still can make that transplant happen, senior author Dr. Dorry Segev of John Hopkins University in Baltimore told Reuters Health. Thats very exciting to those on the waiting list. Eight-year survival rates were almost 77 percent for 1,025 people who received an HLA-incompatible kidney from a live donor, 63 percent for 5,125 matched patients who remained on a waiting list for a kidney or received a kidney from a deceased donor and 44 percent for 5,125 people who remained on the waiting list without receiving a kidney. The paper is showing how much longer the patient will live compared to their next available option, said Segev, who directs John Hopkins Epidemiology Research Group in Organ Transplantation.