Columbus, Ohio Ohio State University said that its medical institution recently completed 20 procedures over two days in a rare 20-person living kidney donor transplant chain.
It was the university’s record. Furthermore, according to a news release from Ohio State, this 20-person transplant chain is thought to be among the biggest in the country to occur at a single facility.
The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center Comprehensive Transplant Center was the site of the coordinated procedures. According to a news release from Ohio State, surgeons successfully implanted healthy kidneys from ten living donors into ten recipients in need of a kidney transplant.
Over the course of the two days, five donor and five recipient procedures were conducted.
According to the university, paired kidney donation occurs when a kidney recipient has a living donor who is not a suitable match for their blood or tissue. In order to ensure that every recipient obtains a compatible organ, the transplant team creates a chain of incompatible donor/receiver couples. A person on the transplant waiting list is the last recipient of the transplant switch, which starts with a donor who is not getting a kidney.
According to Dr. Kenneth Washburn, executive director of the Wexner Comprehensive Transplant Center, “large chains like this one allow us to help a large number of patients in a short period of time.”
This link has been planned since October by the Wexner transplant team. To maintain the chain, transplant coordinators collaborated extensively with potential donors and recipients. According to Ohio State, the chain would have been broken if either the donor or the recipient had a cold or fever and couldn’t have had the surgery.
According to Dr. Amer Rajab, clinical professor of surgery and surgical director of kidney transplantation at Ohio State College of Medicine, patients with kidney failure can survive for a long period on dialysis, but the treatment can be taxing on the body and lower quality of life. Six donor procedures were carried out by Rajab, who also served as the transplant chain’s leader.
Our patients frequently tell me how happy they are after the organ transplant is finished and the new kidney begins to function, Rajab said.
Since 1967, Ohio State’s Comprehensive Transplant Center has conducted over 8,500 kidney transplants, making it one of the busiest kidney transplant facilities in the country.
The Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network reports that 90,506 people require a kidney and that there are 104,840 persons on the transplant waiting list. Ohio is home to almost 2,000 of them.
Ten patients were taken off the transplant waiting list by this kidney chain, which should help others get transplants sooner, Rajab added. In order to help more individuals, we need more living kidney donors. Our donors go on to lead extremely full lives, and living donations are safe.
Facts about organ, tissue donation
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention state that:
Organizations that support organ donation
Lifebanc is a nonprofit organ and tissue recovery organization that serves Northeast Ohio. In addition to donating life-saving organs to transplant centers across the United States, the company collaborates with 80 institutions in a 20-county region of Northeast Ohio.
Give Life Ohio urges its citizens to register for the Ohio Donor Registry in order to donate their organs.
Transplant House of Cleveland offers organ transplant recipients and their families short-term, reasonably priced lodging.
Forcleveland.com, Julie Washington writes about healthcare. Visit this page to read previous stories.
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