Heart-kidney transplantation relative to heart transplantation alone was associated with superior survival regardless of dialysis status and for patients with moderate kidney disease, according to a national transplant registry analysis. Read the full story in Healio.
LAKE HAVASU CITY, AZ (3TV/CBS 5) – A man from Lake Havasu City was saved by breakthrough technology used for the first time in Arizona, a ‘heart in a box.’ We first told you about the procedure in December. The ‘heart in a box’ is a game changer for transplants since it doesn’t rely on the donor to be ‘brain dead’ to recover the organ. The recipient Jeff Robinson said he feels like a new man after receiving the new heart. “I feel blessed to have the second chance,” said Robinson. “I’m able to walk farther.” Read or watch the story in Arizona’s Family here.
A virtual reality intervention designed to distract children undergoing a blood draw significantly improved pain and anxiety, highlighting the possibility for virtual reality interventions for other procedures, according to researchers. Read the full story in Healio.
Adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities and end-stage kidney disease are less likely to be evaluated to kidney transplantation compared to peers without disabilities, according to data published in JAMA Surgery. Read more in Healio.
He is at least the third person cured in this way, which would likely be too risky for patients who don’t also have cancer
A 53-year-old man diagnosed with HIV in 2008 is now free of the virus after receiving a stem cell transplant, researchers reported Monday in the journal Nature Medicine.
The German man, known as “the Düsseldorf patient,” is the third confirmed person to be cured of HIV using this treatment, the authors write. Last year, researchers announced that two additional patients had recovered from the virus—including, importantly, a woman of mixed race—but papers on these patients have not been published yet, according to the Agence France-Presse (AFP). Read more in Smithsonian Magazine.
Internationally recognized cardiologist in heart transplantation Jon Kobashigawa, MD, director of Advanced Heart Disease and the Heart Transplant Program in the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai, and chief medical officer of the California Heart Center Foundation, an affiliate of Cedars-Sinai, has been selected to receive the highly coveted 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation (ISHLT). Read more in Science X.
The following is the summary of “Primary heart dysfunction is greater with combined heart and lung compared with isolated heart procurement” published in the January 2023 issue of Thoracic and cardiovascular surgery by Ram, et al. Read more in Physician’s Weekly.
In late December 2022, as severe storms swept across the Midwest, a husband and father waited in a North Dakota hospital for a kidney. A lifesaving donor organ had been matched and was ready to be received by his transplant team—but 400 miles separated kidney from recipient, and a blizzard had cancelled all flights. Ultimately, thanks to a determined courier, a tow truck, a sheriff’s deputy whose own sister was a liver transplant recipient, and a snowplow clearing the way on a highway closed by driving snow and 50 mph winds, that gift of life was successfully delivered to its destination. Read more on UNOS.org.
Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy were associated with higher risk for coronary artery disease and stroke, which was only partially mediated by cardiometabolic factors, according to findings from a study using mendelian randomization. Read more in Healio.
A new data report contains summary level information on the exception request decisions made by the Pediatric National Heart Review Board (NHRB). The board was implemented on June 15, 2021. Before implementation, Regional Review Boards (RRBs) handled and reviewed exception cases for pediatrics candidates. Read more from UNOS.