By Natasha Persaud
Kidney stones develop in approximately 2% of first-time kidney transplant recipients within 3 years following transplantation, a rate that is “not rare,” according to investigators.
“Kidney stone events in patients who receive a kidney transplant are consequential,” Calyani Ganesan, MD, MS, of Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, and colleagues wrote in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.
Read the full story in Renal & Urology News.
By Gabriel Spitzer, Emily Kwong, Rebecca Ramirez, Liz Metzger
In February 2021, pandemic restrictions were just starting to ease in Hawaii, and Leila Mirhaydari was finally able to see her kidney doctor. This was a huge relief after being unable to get in-person health care for so long. But Leila was also anxious: Transplanted organs need diligent care, and Leila had been looking after her donated kidney all on her own for a year. So a lot was riding on that first batch of lab results. Read or listen the to the full story on NPR.
By Nancy A. Melville
An automated system for the diagnosis of rejection after kidney transplant simplifies the assessment of increasingly complex criteria, significantly reducing the common occurrence of misclassification and potentially improving outcomes, according to new research.
“To date, no study in transplantation and other medical fields has developed and validated an automated multimodal disease classification,” report the French authors in their article published online May 4 in Nature Medicine.
Read more in Medscape.
One of the most important responsibilities you will have after getting your kidney transplant is following a prescribed and complex medication regimen.
Taking immunosuppressant (anti-rejection) medications will be required for the rest of your life. Read the full article on CareDx.com.
By Jill Cruse, DO
The first successful organ transplant was a kidney transplant in 1954. The donor was the identical twin of the recipient. The new kidney worked for 11 months. This was long before any anti-rejection medications were available. Cyclosporine, the first anti-rejection medication, was approved for use in 1983. The use of anti-rejection medications has significantly increased how long transplanted organs will function.
A transplanted kidney from a living donor will last on average 12-20 years. A kidney from a decease donor lasts 8-12 years on average. Read more in the Alliance Times-Herald.
By Kevin Longino
I know what it is like to experience kidney failure and, thankfully, I am one of the fortunate few to receive a kidney transplant.
As the CEO of the National Kidney Foundation, I lead with a sense of urgency because I know how challenging life can be for patients living on dialysis and waiting to get their life back.
Read the full article in Healio.
By Lynn Nichols
When Hazel Cunanan, a home health nurse, got the call that her 15-year-old son, Markus, needed a kidney transplant, she broke down. It was simply too much. The family had already endured a kidney transplant for their eldest daughter, Danica.
“I sat with my patient and I cried and cried,” Hazel says. “But it ended up being much easier the second time around. We knew what to expect, we were stronger. And we already had a community at the hospital and at home to help us.”
Read the full story in Stanford Medicine Childrens Health Healthier, Happier Lives Blog.
By Kate Kneisel
Why has this 72-year-old woman with a history of kidney disease developed visual changes that affect only her left eye?
When the patient presented for an eye exam, M. Tariq Bhatti, MD, and colleagues at Kaiser Permanente-Northern California in Roseville, learned that she had been living with kidney disease for much of her life. Read the full story in MedPage Today.
By Beatrice Concepcion, MD
It has been almost 70 years since the first successful living donor kidney transplant between identical twin brothers was performed at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston.
Since then, tremendous advances have been made in the specialty, particularly in overcoming immunologic barriers to transplantation, including modern-day immunosuppression.
Read more in Healio.
In 2021 Maureen Murphy answered the call to give a part of herself–literally. When she found out her friend Kim Moulton needed a kidney transplant, she offered to be her donor. “I had everything I needed in life, so I thought this was something I could do to help,” Maureen says. She contacted the Dartmouth Hitchcock Transplant center, where Kim was a patient of Michael Daily, MD, section chief of Solid Organ Transplantation at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, and told them she wanted to donate one of her kidneys to Kim. Read more in Dartmouth Health.