New findings suggest concurrent liver diseases are increasing among adult liver transplant recipients in Australia and New Zealand, but do not seem to affect posttransplant survival.
The data additionally suggest these increases were predominantly driven by an increase in metabolic-associated fatty liver disease and alcohol-related liver disease. Read more in HCP Live.
Renal transplantation is considered the gold standard treatment for end-stage kidney disease. Adolescent and young adult kidney transplant recipients have the highest rate of graft loss amongst transplanted patients. It is largely accepted this is due to psychosocial and behavioural difficulties, which impact adherence to prescribed therapies. This phenomenon is not isolated to a particular healthcare system having been observed in multiple countries across different continents. It is a global issue of concern. We sought to review the psychosocial needs of these patients, and the interventions designed to meet these needs. Read more from BMC Psychology.
Looking for the perfect summer meal? Well, look no further! This recipe for chipotle shrimp tacos with a quick pineapple salsa is bursting with bold flavor and fresh ingredients, is transplant friendly and comes together quickly! Get the recipe on CareDx.com.
For the first time, a heart from a donor with HIV has been transplanted into a recipient living with HIV, according to Montefiore Health System in New York City, where the transplant was performed.
Such a transplant was made possible by passage of the HIV Organ Policy Equity (HOPE) Act in 2013, but it took nearly 9 years to see the first successful transplant.
Read the full story in Medscape.
Despite increased perioperative risks in older patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and cirrhosis, orthotropic liver transplantation provides greater survival benefit compared with ablative therapies, according to new research.
“Because waitlist demand for [orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT)] continues to increase at a rate that far exceeds the increase in solid-organ donation, it becomes imperative to determine the optimal groups of patients that would benefit from OLT,” Malay B. Shah, MD, FACS, surgical director of the liver transplant program at UK HealthCare at the University of Kentucky, and colleagues wrote in Journal of the American College of Surgeons. “It is well known that elderly patients undergoing elective or emergent surgery have poorer outcomes compared to their younger counterparts.” Read the full story in Healio.
Kidney transplant recipients experience immune-insufficiency during acute COVID-19, which may explain the low rates of acute rejection among these patients even with reduced immunosuppression, according to a recently published study.
“Immunosuppressed kidney transplant recipients (KTRs) are largely reported to have poor outcomes compared to non-transplant patients. Since immunosuppression could inhibit the development of protective anti-COVID-19 immunity, most centers have empirically reduced anti-rejection immunosuppression in KTRs with COVID-19 from the onset of the pandemic,” Zeguo Sun, from the department of medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and colleagues wrote. Read the full story in Healio.
Drinking just 2 cups of tea every day may lower one’s mortality risk, according to a study published in Annals of Internal Medicine.
Tea, one of the most popular drinks in the world, according to researchers, has previously been linked to a lower mortality risk in populations where green tea is the most common type consumed. Read the full story in Healio.
This study aims to investigate the effect of recent influenza and pneumococcal vaccines’ administration on the development of COVID-19 infection in kidney transplant recipients during the pandemic. The full article in ScienceDirect.
Robotic surgery compared favorably with standard surgery in a review and analysis of data from 1,375 patients who underwent surgery to remove cancer from the kidney and inferior vena cava. The inferior vena cava (IVC), the body’s biggest vein, carries blood out of the kidneys back to the heart. Cancer can infiltrate this vein and advance to the liver and heart. Robotic IVC thrombectomy resulted in fewer blood transfusions and fewer complications overall in patients compared to standard, open IVC thrombectomy. The findings should compel further studies of the benefits of robotic IVC thrombectomy. Read the study in Science Daily.
Kidney transplant recipients (KTRs) have experienced severe symptoms and poor outcomes with COVID-19. Because the long-term antirejection immunosuppressive drugs that KTRs take could inhibit the development of protective anti-COVID-19 immunity, most hospitals have reduced the drugs’ doses in KTRs with COVID-19. Surprisingly, reported rates of acute rejection have been low despite reduced immunosuppression in these patients. A new study in JASN provides a potential explanation.
To study KTRs’ immune responses in the face of COVID-19, a team lead by Madhav C. Menon, MBBS, MD (Yale University School of Medicine and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai) analyzed the blood of 64 KTRs with COVID-19, including 31 acute cases (< 4 weeks from diagnosis) and 33 post-acute cases (>4 weeks). Patients were enrolled form Mount Sinai and Montefiore hospital (Albert Einstein College of Medicine)—two hospitals at the forefront of the pandemic in its early months. Read the full story in Medical Xpress.