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The Urgent Need to Reform the Organ Transplantation System to Secure More Organs for Waiting, Ailing, and Dying Patients

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“Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy, and Rep. Michael Cloud, the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy, will hold a virtual hearing to examine the nation’s system for securing organs for transplant for patients suffering from organ failure.

More than 107,000 patients in the United States are waiting for an organ for transplant.  Every day, an estimated 33 people in the United States die while waiting for their transplant.  Hundreds of thousands more are on kidney dialysis and could benefit from a kidney transplant but are not even on a waitlist.  The number of available organs for transplant does not meet this critical need.  For the past four years, on average only 37,500 organs were transplanted annually, including around 31,000 organs from deceased donors and 6,500 organs from living donors. 

Recently, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services finalized an OPO reform rule that it estimates will increase transplants by 5,600 to 7,300 per year.  Unfortunately, the rule will not be enforced until 2026, while patients continue to suffer. 

This hearing will highlight the urgent need to take immediate action to reform OPOs and obtain more organs for transplant, while uplifting patient voices and underscoring racial, geographic, and socioeconomic inequities in organ donation and transplant processes.”

You can watch the full hearing, here.

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Chicago 6th grader gets kidney donation from woman who works at his school

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“He had one kidney removed, but when the tumor kept coming back over the years, radiation treatments damaged his other kidney.

“It was pretty tough. I didn’t feel well,” he said. “I’d mostly go home and sit around.”

Ward Sexton said he and his wife Robyn set their sights on getting their son a new kidney and tried to find a donor.

“Robyn isn’t a blood match, I was ruled out, so we said, ‘We’ll ask friends,'” he said.

Last year, they wrote a letter asking those who may be interested to get a blood test to see if they were a match for Gavin. The email was forwarded and landed in the inbox of Ann Chiumino, who works in administration at Sacred Heart Academy, where Gavin is a student. The two did not know each other, but Chiumino said she felt the need to answer the call.”

Read the full story, here.

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Kidneys in the Kitchen: Blueberry Oatmeal Smoothie

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This easy-to-make Blueberry Oatmeal Smoothie is filling and kidney-friendly!

INGREDIENTS

1/2 c kefir

1/2 c blueberries

1/2 c dry oatmeal

1 TBSP chia seeds

1 TBSP flax seeds

DIRECTIONS

Add ingredients to blender and blend until smooth. If it’s too thick, add water a tablespoon at a time until drinkable.

See the full recipe and watch the how-to video, here.

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How a wearable helps improve care after a kidney transplant

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“The wearable geko device, manufactured by UK-based Sky Medical Technology and distributed in Canada by Trudell Healthcare Solutions, is a small muscle pump activator that significantly increases blood flow via painless electrical pulses. Patients using the device following kidney transplantation experienced shorter hospital stays and reduced surgical site infections by nearly 60%. 

Kidney and simultaneous pancreas-kidney transplantations can significantly reduce mortality and improve the quality of life for patients with end stage renal disease.”

Read more, here.

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Despite COVID Vaccinations, Caution Still Crucial for Transplant Recipients

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“Long before COVID-19 changed the world, organ transplant recipients were wearing masks to shield themselves from airborne threats.

Immunosuppressive medicines, which often are a lifelong requirement after a transplant, add an extra layer of protection against viruses as common as a cold or as dangerous as COVID. Transplant patients are told to use masks for any group gatherings or airplane flights, and hand sanitizing is a must. 

While COVID has brought a heightened awareness of these patients’ health risks and fragility, a recent study by Johns Hopkins University researchers in Baltimore, Maryland, and a report from the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, may raise their sense of unease even further.”

Read the full article, here.

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Antibody Response to 2-Dose SARS-CoV-2 mRNA Vaccine Series in Solid Organ Transplant Recipients

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“Transplant recipients without prior polymerase chain reaction–confirmed COVID-19 were recruited from across the US to participate in this prospective cohort through a digital campaign. Those who completed the 2-dose SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine series between December 16, 2020, and March 13, 2021, were included and followed up through April 13, 2021. As described previously,3 semiquantitative antispike serologic testing was undertaken with the Roche Elecsys anti–SARS-CoV-2 S enzyme immunoassay, positive cutoff of at least 0.8 U/mL, which tests for the receptor-binding domain of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, or the EUROIMMUN enzyme immunoassay, positive cutoff of at least 1.1 arbitrary units, which tests for the S1 domain of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, both key measures of humoral immune response.4,5 This study was approved by the Johns Hopkins institutional review board; participants provided informed consent electronically.

The proportion of patients who developed a positive antibody response was assessed with an exact binomial confidence interval. The Fisher exact test was used to compare categorical variables, such as antimetabolite immunosuppression, and the Kruskal-Wallis test for continuous variables. All tests were 2-sided with α = .05. Analyses were performed using Stata 16.1/Windows.”

See the full study results, 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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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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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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