New research from UPMC and Pitt shows that living-donor liver transplant offers numerous advantages over deceased-donor transplant, including superior outcomes and less resource utilization.
Nearly a fifth of the respondents in a recent study said they would reverse their opposition to compensating kidney donors if a form of non-cash payment led to a substantial increase in the supply of available organs for transplant.
For patients with Type 1 diabetes who don’t respond well to insulin or have other serious medical complications caused by their disease, pancreas transplantation offers hope for a cure. But obese candidates who need a pancreas transplant often are denied the procedure because of poor outcomes, including high rates of incision infections, which are linked to an increased risk for failure and loss of the implanted organ.
• Among older living kidney donors, those with hypertension had higher risk of developing kidney failure through 15 years after donation; however, the absolute risk was small. • Hypertension was not linked with a higher risk of early death among older donors.
Scientists at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center have identified an expression pattern of 14 genes at the time of diagnosis that predicts two year, transplant-free survival in children with biliary atresia – the most common diagnosis leading to liver transplants in children. The researchers also found that the antioxidant N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC) reduced liver injury and fibrosis (excess fibrous connective tissue) in mice with biliary atresia and increased survival times.
While many parents and children go into related lines of work, few do it with as much heart–literally–as a father-and-son duo at Cedars-Sinai. Fardad Esmailian, MD, transplants hearts. His 23-year-old son, Gabby Esmailian, is part of the crew that dashes around California and other states, procuring hearts, and sometimes lungs and livers, before delivering them to waiting Cedars-Sinai surgeons.
The confluence of two major health crises—the opioid epidemic and organ shortage—has moved surgeons to consider transplanting organs deemed as less than “perfect” in an effort to expand the donor pool and save more lives.
A "second-generation" platelet concentrate called platelet-rich fibrin (PRF) might enhance the outcomes of fat grafting for plastic surgery procedures, reports an experimental study in the June issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).
BK polyomavirus is harbored in most humans; in kidney transplant patients, immune suppression drugs to help the kidney can reactivate the virus and instead cause kidney failure. Research shows a way to reduce BK polyomavirus levels in patients without reducing immunosuppressing drugs.
Bioengineers have developed a 3D printing technique that creates the interacting networks for transport of air, blood, and other bodily fluids—a major step toward 3D printed replacement organs.
An 84-year old becomes the oldest living kidney donor after donating to his 72-year old neighbor. Also, talks about how you are never too old to save someone's life.
The American Academy of Dermatology has honored oncologist Jennifer Whangbo, MD, PhD, and dermatologist Jennifer Huang, MD, FAAD, as Patient Care Heroes for their collaboration in caring for pediatric stem cell transplant patients.
Loyola Medicine’s groundbreaking lung transplant program has reached a major new milestone by performing its 1,000th lung transplant. Loyola has performed more than twice as many lung transplants as all other transplant centers in the state combined.
Recent work highlights a better way to grow smooth muscle cells, one of the two cellular building blocks of arteries, from pluripotent stem cells. This research is part of an effort to create artery banks — similar to blood banks common today — with readily-available material to replace diseased arteries during surgery.
Patients with a form of congenital heart disease — having only one ventricle (pumping chamber) — are now living longer lives due to the successful surgical and medical treatments they receive as children.
Researchers have—for the first time—demonstrated in a clinically relevant model that severely damaged lungs can be regenerated to meet transplantation criteria. Their new study describes the cross-circulation platform that maintained the donor lung’s viability and function and the recipient’s stability for 36-56 hours. Current methodologies of lung support are limited to only 6-8 hours, a time too short for therapeutic interventions that could regenerate the injured lung and improve its function.
A new technique to rehabilitate lungs that are too damaged to be considered for transplant could benefit an increasing population of patients with end-stage lung disease.
Pioneering and internationally renowned cardiothoracic surgeon, Vaughn Starnes appointed 100th president of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery
A new study shows that a potential treatment for ischemia- reperfusion injury is safe for humans. Building upon three decades of preclinical animal studies, this NIH-funded trial demonstrated, for the first time, the safety of Regadenoson (an adenosine 2A receptor agonist) in human lung transplant patients.
When she turned 48, Lisa James of Arlington, Texas, decided she wanted to make the ultimate gift by donating one of her kidneys to a child she hadn’t met.
Founded in 2017, the navigator program works with both recipients and donors to identify needs and guide each through the process to transplantation and post-transplant.
In a first-ever advancement in human medicine and aviation technology, a University of Maryland unmanned aircraft has delivered a donor kidney to surgeons at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore for successful transplantation into a patient with kidney failure. This successful demonstration illustrates the potential of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) for providing organ deliveries that, in many cases, could be faster, safer, and more widely available than traditional transport methods. The momentous flight was a collaboration between transplant physicians and researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore; aviation and engineering experts at the University of Maryland; the University of Maryland Medical Center; and collaborators at the Living Legacy Foundation of Maryland.
Alcohol Relapse Rate Among Liver Transplant Recipients Identical Whether or Not There is A 6-Month Wait Before Transplant 04/25/2019 AddThis Sharing Buttons Share to Facebook Share to TwitterShare to EmailShare to PrintShare to More Credit: Getty Images For decades, patients with liver disease related to alcohol use have been told they must be sober for six months before they can get a liver transplant. Many die before that six-month wait period is up. Now, a growing number of researchers are questioning that six-month waiting period.
It was in the Boy Scouts, decades before he came to Cedars-Sinai, that Dr. Nicholas Nissen, surgical director of Liver Transplantation, learned about going above and beyond the call of duty. On Thursday, April 25, he will receive one of the highest honors bestowed by Scouts USA: The rank of Distinguished Eagle Scout.
In 2017, in response to a lawsuit filed by a 21-year-old woman on the waiting list for lungs in New York City, a federal court order changed the policy covering the distribution of lungs donated for transplant. However, the policy change has had several unintended consequences, according to a new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The new policy has imposed a significant logistical burden on organ procurement organizations and surgical teams involved in retrieving the donated organs.
After Hermine Honarvar Rule was told that she was in critical need of a kidney transplant, two relatives and a friend each volunteered to give up a kidney to help save her. But during the screening process all three candidates were discovered to have health issues that would disqualify them from donating. Thankfully, her husband Mark turned out to be the right match for his wife. “We were truly made for each other,” he jokes today.
An anonymous living liver donor helped the UHN Transplant Program achieve a North American first with an innovative living liver donor exchange, or “swap,” that saved the lives of two failing liver patients, with the potential to save many more.
Here's a great story about a Kentucky woman who donated a kidney to a perfect stranger from New York who 21 years earlier had undergone a heart-liver transplant. The two women met on the Matching Donors website, a non-profit organization that provides a platform where patients and potential donors can meet. All three organ transplants took place at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles.
The Transplant Research and Education Center (TREC) at UCLA will launch the Living Donation Storytelling Project, a unique digital library of stories of people sharing their real experiences as living donors, recipients of living donor kidney transplants, and those in need of transplants.
Inspirational living kidney donor chain saves lives of two mothers; moving experience for donors
Grateful organ transplant patients and donor families spoke during Loyola Medicine's 28th annual Candle-Lighting Ceremony, an emotional event held during National Donate Life Month that honors organ donors.
Tim Lowell of Hernando, Mississippi, received the first total artificial heart in the state of Tennessee when the cardiac surgery team at Vanderbilt Health placed the device in his chest on Sept. 26, 2018. The mechanical heart kept him alive for nearly three months until a matching human donor heart became available and he was transplanted on Dec. 16, 2018, at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
When transplant cardiologists at Debakey Heart and Vascular Center at Houston Methodist Hospital began using percutaneously placed axillary IABPs as a bridge to heart transplants, the CICU team had to develop mobilization and ambulation guidelines unique to these patients.
A University of Maryland Medicine team performed a rare bilateral lung-heart transplant on a 12-year-old girl. The surgery was done at the University of Maryland Children’s Hospital.
For the first time, a person living with HIV has donated a kidney to a transplant recipient also living with HIV. A multidisciplinary team from Johns Hopkins Medicine completed the living donor HIV-to-HIV kidney transplant on Mar. 25. The doctors say both the donor and the recipient are doing well.
The nondescript yet mysterious fatty tissue that hangs like an apron from the stomach – called the omentum – holds great promise for thousands of children born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome(HLHS) or other severe cardiac defects, who might need a heart transplant within their first 10 years of life. Using an animal model, researchers found that surgically attaching the omentum to the overburdened heart reduces signs of injury, allowing the heart to function normally. Their findings were published in the Annals of Thoracic Surgery.
In a surprising finding, researchers at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center showed the protein NLRP6 aggravated the difficult symptoms of gastrointestinal graft-vs.-host disease. Knocking out this protein in mice led to significantly better survival and less severe GVHD.
On behalf of the more than 720,000 Americans with kidney failure whose lives depend on either a kidney transplant or dialysis to survive and their families, the 40 million Americans with kidney diseases, and the more than 20,000 ASN members who are physicians, scientists, nurses, and health professionals, ASN applauds the leadership of HHS Secretary Alex M. Azar, II, in confronting the issue of a three-year statutory restriction on Medicare coverage of immunosuppressant drugs following a kidney transplant. STATEMENT OF AMERICAN SOCIETY OF NEPHROLOGY (ASN) PRESIDENT MARK E. ROSENBERG, MD, FASN, ON HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES (HHS) SECRETARY AZAR’S ANNOUNCEMENT ON IMMUNOSUPPRESSIVE COVERAGE FOR KIDNEY TRANSPLANTS Washington, DC (March 15, 2019) – On behalf of the more than 720,000 Americans with kidney failure whose lives depend on either a kidney transplant or dialysis to survive and their families, the 40 million Americans with kidney diseases, and the more than 20,000 ASN members
• After examining comprehensive pathology findings and clinical, immunological, and outcome data pertaining to patients with transplant glomerulopathy, investigators identified 5 groups of patients with distinct features, as well as different outcomes in terms of survival rates of transplanted kidneys.
Joe Janusz, president of the Peoria-area River City Bowling Association, is looking forward to bowling again following his heart transplant at Loyola University Medical Center. "When I throw that first ball, I will know I've completed my recovery," he said. "And I plan for it to be a strike."
• Payments by organ transplant recipients and Medicare decreased significantly following the introduction of generic immunosuppressive medications. • Large differences in out-of-pocket payments for immunosuppressive medications between Part D beneficiaries who did and did not qualify for the Medicare low-income subsidy suggest that recipients with resources just above the threshold to qualify for the subsidy may experience considerable financial strain.
Nine patients at Penn Medicine have been cured of the Hepatitis C virus (HCV) following lifesaving heart transplants from deceased donors who were infected with the disease, according to a study published in the American Journal of Transplantation.
Needle biopsies detect rejection after a transplanted organ is already in trouble and sometimes miss the mark. And the needle damages tissue. This biocompatible nanoparticle goes to work at the first sign of trouble and could give clinicians much more information with a simple urine test.
NYU Langone Transplant Institute launches a new pancreas transplantation program, expanding regional access to care for people with complications from diabetes and other illnesses.
Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) Energy Club and Sustainable Business Club are hosting the inaugural Climate, Business and Innovation conference to inform the Stanford business community of the risks and opportunities presented by climate change.
A new case study out of New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development finds that face transplant surgery in patients who have experienced severe facial trauma can improve speech production.
Refrigeration is an essential component of the food supply chain, extending the shelf life of perishable food and ensuring that consumers receive safe food that does not pose a threat to their health. It is estimated that 40 percent of food products require refrigeration and that nine percent of losses of perishable foods are due to lack of refrigeration in developed countries. However, this level of refrigeration has an environmental cost; refrigeration accounts for 15 percent of the electricity consumed and the food cold chain represents one percent of CO2 emissions worldwide.
In this episode we chat with Pinar Zorlutuna, a professor in aerospace and mechanical engineering, who is using tissue engineering to extend the viability of hearts in a transplant scenario. In addition, we catch up with Sophia Bevacqua, an alumna who is working in art restoration at the Vatican Museums.
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have discovered clues to a particularly deadly form of rejection that can follow lung transplantation. Called antibody-mediated rejection, the condition remains impervious to available treatments and difficult to diagnose. The researchers have identified, in mice, a process that may prevent the condition and lead to possible therapies to treat it.
For a patient awaiting a new organ – namely a liver or kidney – living donation provides a viable alternative and can often shorten a recipient’s wait time.
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