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UNOS to Revamp Heart Allocation Rules to Rein in Transplant Waitlist Tricks

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— It may be goodbye to priority tiers, hello to points-based ranking system in coming years

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Four years after a major revision of the U.S. heart transplant allocation rules, deliberations are again underway on how to curb gaming of the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) system.

The recent explosion in Status 2 transplant candidates with advanced heart failure would improbably suggest that “suddenly the entire country has sicker patients,” said Shelley Hall, MD, chief of transplant cardiology at Baylor Scott & White Health in Dallas and chair of the cardiac committee for UNOS. Read more in MedPage Today.

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Age at Diabetes Onset Matters for Death, Comorbidity Risks

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— Adults diagnosed in their 50s saw far worse outcomes than those diagnosed in their 70s

Age at diabetes diagnosis was predictive of morbidity and mortality in older adults, according to data from a population-based, biennial longitudinal health interview survey.

Of 7,739 adults ages 50 and older who participated in the Health and Retirement Study survey, diabetes diagnosis at 50 to 59 years of age was significantly associated with mortality (HR 1.49, 95% CI 1.29-1.71) compared with no diabetes diagnosis, reported Judy Zhong, PhD, of NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York City, and colleagues in JAMA Network Open. Read the full story in MedPage Today.

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Despite recommendations, statin use ‘not ubiquitous’ in CKD with ASCVD

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Overall statin use among adults with chronic kidney disease is high, yet there have been only modest increases in the use of high‐intensity statins, ezetimibe and PCSK9 inhibitors, data from a prospective 2‐year study show.

Both the 2013 Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) and 2018 American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association cholesterol guidelines recommend at least statin therapy for adults with non‐dialysis-dependent chronic kidney disease (CKD) and atherosclerotic CVD, as CKD is a major risk factor for disease progression, Robert S. Rosenson, MD, director of metabolism and lipids for the Mount Sinai Health System and professor of medicine in cardiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and colleagues wrote. Read the full story in Healio.

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An Unexpected Tale of Friendship Amid Paired Organ Donation

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Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania’s Pavilion, she’d gazed at the Philadelphia skyline long enough, and decided to get out of bed and walk.

Three doors down, she popped into the room of her friend Dan Napoleon. He was glad to see her, and together they took selfies and live chatted with their kids’ soccer team, away at a tournament in Virginia. They wished each other well, and marveled once again at the unlikely miracle that had brought them both to the hospital’s transplant floor.
Read the full story from Penn Medicine News.

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Donating Portion of Your Liver to Someone in Need Is Safe, Life-Saving: Study

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TUESDAY, Sept. 27, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Thousands of people die every year while waiting for a liver transplant. Living-donor transplantation holds the potential to save many of these lives, yet remains underused in the United States.

During the procedure, a portion of a donor’s liver is removed and transplanted into a person with liver disease. The donor’s remaining liver returns to its normal size and capacity within a few months. Read the full story in U.S. News & World Report.

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Kidney Transplant Recipients Able to Find Stable Work Post Surgery

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A recent report found that 56% of patients from The Netherlands who underwent a kidney transplant were able to work and functioned well while working.

The proportion of people who underwent a kidney transplant in The Netherlands were able to work, and well, according to a new report published in Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology estimated.

This study also found that these patients functioned better at work after the surgery compared with before the transplant. Read more in the American Journal of Managed Care (AJMC).

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She’s celebrating her 50th birthday and 9th anniversary of her heart transplant

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At 26, Melody Hickman of Raleigh, North Carolina, was crestfallen. A routine physical detected a problem with her mitral valve. Fixing it required open-heart surgery.

“I knew I would have to be on a heart-lung machine, and the idea of having the incision really bothered me,” she said, noting she often wore V-neck tops. “It was a lot to digest.”

The surgery and recovery went well. Then, 14 years later, the valve needed to be replaced again. That meant a second open-heart surgery. Read more from American Heart Association News.

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Lung transplant recipients remain at high risk for severe disease, mortality from omicron variant

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Despite a lower overall mortality rate, lung transplant recipients remain at high risk for severe disease and death from the COVID-19 omicron variant compared with both the general population and other respiratory infections.

“[The omicron variant] is shown to be associated with lower severity of illness in the general population, particularly among the vaccinated, compared to the preceding variants,” Jamie Hum, DNP, lung transplant nurse practitioner in the division of pulmonary and critical care medicine and with the Lung Transplant Program at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center, and colleagues wrote in Annals of the American Thoracic Society. Read more in Healio.

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11 Kidney Transplant Recovery Tips

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Rest, hydration, protein and light exercise all play an important role in your healing

Getting a kidney transplant gives you a new lease on life. A successful transplant gives you increased strength, stamina and energy — but while you’re recovering from surgery, you may not quite feel that way yet.

If you’re about to undergo kidney transplant surgery, here’s what you need to know about recovery. Read more from the Cleveland Clinic.

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Transplant Center reaches milestone: 5,000 kidney transplants

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(SACRAMENTO) UC Davis Health reached an institutional milestone in August, surpassing 5,000 kidney transplants performed since its first almost 37 years ago.

Established in 1985, the UC Davis Transplant Center performed 282 kidney transplants in 2021, making UC Davis Health one of  the top 10 centers in the nation  for total kidney transplants. Read more from UC Davis Health News.

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