Kidney Transplantation
Kidney transplants seem so routine now. But the first one was like Lindbergh's flight across the ocean - Joseph Murray
image by: Organ Donation Scotland
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Kidney Transplantation and Quality of Life: What We Still Don’t Know
Kidney transplantation is considered the best treatment choice for end-stage renal disease (ESRD) as it is associated with lower mortality and better psychosocial outcomes when compared to dialysis. It is well established that in most cases, kidney transplantation markedly improves a patient’s quality of life (QoL) however that quality is still lower than that of the general population. The majority of patients who receive a donor kidney can survive for many years allowing patients to be free from dialysis and be more active, returning a sense of ‘normality’ to their lives. However, kidney transplantation is not a cure and recipients continue to live with a chronic illness that requires…
Resources
Surgeons complete first-ever gene-edited pig kidney transplant
Doctors say ‘the real hero’ is the 62-year-old patient from Massachusetts who underwent the experimental procedure.
The Racial Gap in Kidney Transplants Is Getting Even Bigger
Black and Hispanic patients are less likely than their white peers to receive kidney transplants from live donors, according to a new study. That’s despite efforts to eliminate racial and ethnic disparities, suggesting that new policies will be needed to eliminate the imbalance.
Home Hemodialysis Vs. Transplant: The Elephant In The Room
Folks who get transplanted are the most medically scrutinized group in nephrology. They are screened literally up one side and down the other—from dental exams to colonoscopies and everything in between. So, is it fair to say that because of a kidney transplant, they live longer? No, it’s not. This group is highly selected. And, patient selection is the elephant in the room.
How the First Successful Kidney Transplant Happened
At the time, organ transplants were rare and temporary. They were meant to help the individual until their own kidney could recover, and the body typically rejected them. But Herrick had an identical twin brother, Ronald, and a courageous medical team at what is now Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston who decided to take the risk and transplant Richard with one of Ronald’s kidneys. The surgery took about 5 hours, on Dec. 23, 1954...
How to get on the kidney transplant wait list
Like I said, Mr. Garcia was one of the lucky ones. I hope the info I share in this latest video will help you or someone you love to be lucky too.
Saying No To A Kidney Transplant
Do not misunderstand. I am ecstatic when someone I know who has a working transplant is doing well. That was the right choice for them. I support them 100% and anyone else who wants one. But there is an old saying, “Be careful what you wish for!” It would be a mistake to think that a transplant will make your life better. A kidney will not fix everything that is wrong in your life, and you may or may not return to good health. It is a gamble. A transplant is about the unknown. Be sure that you understand what the tradeoffs are, and prepare for the bad, as well as the good.
A Moral Market
Altruism exchanges could ease the desperate shortage of kidneys for transplant.
I Gave My Kidney to a Stranger to Save My Brother’s Life
How an innovative organ-donation program devised by Nobel Prize-winning economists helped four patients overcome a dire medical hurdle and survive.
Kidney Coupons Would Help People Who Need Transplants
Donate today and your loved one gets a voucher they can use later.
New Procedure Allows Kidney Transplants From Any Donor
In the anguishing wait for a new kidney, tens of thousands of patients on waiting lists may never find a match because their immune systems will reject almost any transplanted organ. Now, in a large national study that experts are calling revolutionary, researchers have found a way to get them the desperately needed procedure.
Now Streaming: How to Do a Kidney Transplant
As medical schools seek to expand their reach and capture the attentions of smartphone-prone students, class is getting increasingly virtual
Partial Picture
I want to raise my hand and interrupt Dr. W’s talk to ask—“Given that blacks only make up 13% of the population in this country, but develop end-stage kidney disease four times as often as whites, and medical reasons are most often why potential donors are excluded, and the most common causes of kidney failure run in families…what do you think a reasonable goal for living donation from blacks would be?”
Silicon Isn't Just for Computers. It Can Make a Pretty Good Kidney, Too
EVERY WEEK, TWO million people across the world will sit for hours, hooked up to a whirring, blinking, blood-cleaning dialysis machine. Their alternatives: Find a kidney transplant or die.
Study: the kidney shortage kills more than 40,000 people a year
Compensation is a controversial topic, and raises the specter of shady organ markets exploiting poor people. But there are a lot of things short of outright paying people for their kidneys that we can, and should, try.
The Disheartening Experience of Waiting for a Kidney
“If it wasn’t for my wife and my kids, I probably wouldn’t be here, I probably would have gave up,” he says in this documentary, Waiting List, which follows McCabe and his wife through the entire process of waiting and receiving a transplant. “I want to lead a normal father life, and I’m afraid that I’m not going to and that scares me a lot.”
The Twice-Transplanted Kidney
Vertis Boyce got the call from her transplant surgeon last July. We have a kidney for you, Jeffrey Veale explained on the phone, but it has an unusual backstory. The kidney was first transplanted two years ago from a 17-year-old girl into a man in his early 20s, who just unexpectedly died in a car accident. Boyce would be its second recipient. Did she want it?
The Unemployed Are Less Likely to Receive Kidney Transplants
Recent research concludes that a person with a job is 2.24 times more likely to be put on a list for a transplant than someone who is unemployed.
Why I gave my kidney to a stranger — and why you should consider doing it too
The procedure does increase your risk of kidney failure — but the average donor still has only a 1 to 2 percent chance of that happening. The vast majority of donors, 98 to 99 percent, don’t have kidney failure later on. And those who do get bumped up to the top of the waiting list due to their donation.
Kidney Transplantation and Quality of Life: What We Still Don’t Know
A growing body of research into the psychosocial impact of kidney transplant has highlighted a range of difficulties including depression, generalised social and health anxiety, cognitive disturbances, body image concerns, sleep disturbances and pain.
10 Things I Wish I Had Known Before My Transplant
Donor organs are a precious gift, not to be squandered, so I try to live a healthy lifestyle, which includes eating right and exercising gently but often.
Kidney Transplant Conversations
Kidney Transplant Conversations features diverse voices and experiences of donating, receiving, and caring for this gift of life.
Alliance for Paired Kidney Donation
Kidney paired donation matches one incompatible donor/recipient pair to another pair with a complementary incompatibility, so that the donor of the first pair gives to the recipient of the second, and vice versa. In other words, the two pairs swap kidneys.
American Association of Kidney Patients
Once you have the transplant operation, you'll take medications as long as you have a working transplant. These medicines help your body accept the kidney and are called anti-rejection medicines.
Kidney & Urology
Kidney & Urology Foundation of America (KUFA) is a national, not-for-profit organization dedicated to helping people with kidney and urologic diseases and individuals waiting for organ and tissue transplants.
MedlinePlus
If you have a transplant, you must take drugs for the rest of your life, to keep your body from rejecting the new kidney.
National Kidney Foundation
The success rates of transplant surgery have improved remarkably, but growing shortages exist in the supply of organs and tissues available for transplantation. Many Americans who need transplants cannot get them because of these shortages.
NHS
The kidney survival times for living donations are: -1 year - 90-95% -5 years - 80% -15 years - 60%
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