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They Survived COVID. Now They Need New Lungs.

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“BOSTON — He survived Covid-19, but his lungs were ravaged. After months of deep sedation, he is delirious, his muscles atrophied. And this 61-year-old still cannot breathe on his own.

He was first intubated just after the winter holidays. Now, when he fully wakes, he will see that he is still attached to the ventilator by a tracheostomy tube in his neck. Slowly, he will come to learn that catheters the size of garden hoses are connecting his body to another device, a large extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machine that has taken over the work of his failed lungs.

Gently, his doctors and family will tell him that his lungs are never going to recover, and that this machine is a bridge that will help keep him alive until he can receive a transplant. If it turns out that he is not a transplant candidate — if he cannot build up enough strength, or if he develops a catastrophic new infection or organ failure — the machine will eventually be turned off. And he will die.

He is not alone. Here in my hospital, we are caring for a new population of patients who have cleared the virus but are left with severe lung disease, trapped on ventilators and lung bypass machines.”

Read the full piece, here.

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Startup Aims to Make More Kidneys Available for Transplant

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“Kidneys are the most in demand organs throughout the country with more than 100,000 people on the transplant waiting list. The tragedy, says a West Lafayette-based startup, is that nearly 30% of the 20,000 kidneys recovered for transplant each year are discarded before they reach the recipient. Renovera, which recently opened space at the Purdue Research Park, is developing technology it says could rescue the vast majority of discarded kidneys and recondition them for transplant. Laser focused on its mission to save thousands of lives, and boosted by Purdue’s aviation might, Renovera says the technology is nearly ready for takeoff.

Renovera founder and Chief Executive Officer Chris Jaynes is confident the startup’s technology could recondition 80% of the kidneys that are deemed unusable, and his word carries weight in the world of transplantation; Jaynes created the technology currently used in the U.S. to rehabilitate donor lungs.

While kidneys are discarded for a variety of reasons, Jaynes says they often hinge on a single element: time. The current U.S. standard requires that kidneys are out of the body no longer than 20 hours to be viable for transplant.”

Full full article, here.

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Potassium and Your CKD Diet

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Today is NATIONAL HIGH POTASSIUM AWARENESS DAY!

“What is potassium and why is it important to you?

Potassium is a mineral found in many of the foods you eat. It plays a role in keeping your heartbeat regular and your muscles working right. It is the job of healthy kidneys to keep the right amount of potassium in your body. However, when your kidneys are not healthy, you often need to limit certain foods that can increase the potassium in your blood to a dangerous level. You may feel some weakness, numbness and tingling if your potassium is at a high level. If your potassium becomes too high, it can cause an irregular heartbeat or a heart attack.”

Read more, here.

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Test to Predict Kidney Transplant Rejection Works for Children

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Cedars-Sinai Patient Pioneers Successful Pediatric Use of Test Developed for Adults

“In many ways 19-year-old, Brenna Kahlen is a typical teenager. She is living at home in Newport Beach, working and going to college. But unlike most of her peers, Brenna is a now a medical first.

Brenna was born with a disease known as tuberous sclerosis, which affected her kidneys. At age 11, she had both kidneys surgically removed and was placed on dialysis until she could receive a donated kidney.

The transplant happened in 2013 and Brenna “has done extremely well,” said Dechu Puliyanda, MD  Cedars-Sinai’s director of Pediatric Nephrology and Transplant Immunology, who oversees Brenna’s care”

Read the full story, here.

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A Patient Pioneer: Minimally Invasive Lung Transplantation

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Frank Coburn Is the First Patient in Southern California—and Possibly First in the U.S.—to Undergo the Lifesaving Surgery

“To anyone else, it’s just a walk around the block. But for Frank Coburn, 57, and his wife, it’s a miracle.

A miracle that resulted from Coburn becoming the first Southern Californian—and possibly first in the U.S.—to receive a minimally invasive double lung transplant. The procedure was performed at the Smidt Heart Institute.

“After getting the call that a pair of lungs became available and I needed to be at the hospital immediately, I remember being wheeled into the operating room, finally feeling calm and ready to trust the process,” recalled Coburn, a Huntington Beach resident and longtime boat mechanic. “Once I woke up, my care team shared I had undergone a minimally invasive procedure instead of the traditional, more invasive approach. I was so fortunate and felt so proud to be the first. Truly lucky.”

During a routine lung transplant, surgeons usually create a “clamshell” or sternotomy incision, which involves breaking the breastbone in two pieces and requires many patients to rely on a heart-lung machine.”

Read the full story, here.

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Mayo Clinic Q And A: How lung restoration improves organ availability

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“DEAR MAYO CLINIC: I was reading about lung restoration and innovation in the field of lung transplantation. Can you share more about this?

ANSWER: Over the past several years, devices outside the body have been used to evaluate human lungs donated for organ transplant before the lungs are transplanted. In the future, lung restoration may increasingly be used to treat donated lungs to make them healthier, so they could be viable for a transplant. The Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of a device known as the Xvivo Perfusion System with Steen Solution Perfusate, which is being used at Mayo Clinic in Florida, in a model constructed to make organs available regionally. Other systems are being investigated.

A lung transplant can be a lifesaving procedure for people with serious lung diseases, such as pulmonary hypertension, emphysema, pulmonary fibrosis, bronchiectasis or cystic fibrosis. But the number of lungs available for transplant consistently falls far short of the number of people waiting for a lung transplant.”

Read the full Q&A, here.

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New Drug, Positive Results. How Will it Benefit People with Diabetic Kidney Disease?

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“There is promising news for patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and type 2 diabetes—a serious medical condition that is also known as diabetic kidney disease.

Clinical trials have shown finerenone, a pill taken once per day, may prevent diabetic kidney disease from getting worse. Worsening diabetic kidney disease can cause heart problems and kidney failure.

Diabetes and kidney disease

Diabetes damages small blood vessels throughout the body, affecting the kidneys as well as other organs and tissues including skin, nerves, muscles, intestines, and the heart. More than 1 out of 4 adults with diabetes will eventually develop kidney disease, and in the US alone, millions of people already have diabetic kidney disease.

People with type 2 diabetes and kidney disease are three times more likely to die of heart-related causes than those with type 2 diabetes alone. Diabetes is also the leading cause of kidney failure, accounting for 44% of new cases.”

Read the full post, here.

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Advancements in Lung Transplants with the Cleveland Clinic Team

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“A trio of experts from the Cleveland Clinic join Dr. Rizzo for a talk on lung transplant trends and challenges in the US.

There are approximately just 2000 lung transplants conducted annually in the US—a rate which pales significantly to counts of yearly kidney and liver transplants, and is similar to the rate of heart transplants.

The count is in spite of numerous opportunities borne by the growing rate of possibly lethal chronic lung disease in the country, as well as by the fact that lung transplant has become a refined practice since first attempted a half-century ago.”

Listen to the podcast, here.

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Managing Acute Complications with Outpatient Interventions: A Scoping Review

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“Rates of use of emergency departments (ED) and hospital admission are high among patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), particularly among patients with CKD requiring dialysis. Patients receiving maintenance dialysis have, on average, three visits to the ED per year, a rate that is three to eight times higher than among the general population. Of those ED visits, a significant proportion result in hospital admission. Further, ED and in-patient care are drivers of medical costs for patients with CKD, and are associated with significant emotional burden for patients and their caregivers.”

Read more, here.

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Head of local nonprofit donates kidney to one stranger in order to save the life of another

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“WACO, Texas (KWTX) – Coleen Heaton, the director and founder of the nonprofit No Limitations, which was formed to support those in the special needs community through sports and other activities, practiced what she preached about ‘loving with no limitations’ after reading a Facebook post from a friend whose husband needed a kidney transplant.

“I saw a post on Facebook that someone I knew loved someone who needed a kidney. Without much thought or consideration, I looked at my husband and said, ‘What would you say if I said I wanted to donate a kidney?’ And he, knowing me as well as he does and supporting me as strongly as he does, said ‘I guess you’re going to walk around with one kidney for the rest of your life.’”

Heaton had never met her friend’s husband, but after she saw the post on Dec. 16, she contacted the transplant center that night to start the process of filling out questionnaires and testing.

She wasn’t a match for her friend’s husband, but she was a match for another person in need of a kidney and she was told if she agreed to donate to that person, her friend’s husband would also get a kidney in what’s called a paired exchange.”

Read the full story, here.

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