organ transplantation – Page 3

March 17, 2022August 16, 2022

Why is donor care essential?

Living-kidney donation is a precious gift for someone who is suffering from end-stage kidney disease. If an individual’s kidneys are damaged or diseased, they may be able to donate one of their two healthy organs. The remaining kidney will then take over the functions necessary for life. Kidney donation doesn’t affect the function or survival of your remaining kidney. Many living donors go on to lead healthy lives as well. Instead, your remaining kidney may increase its capacity to function by an average of 22.4%. This is known as “compensatory growth.” Read the full story.

February 23, 2022August 16, 2022

Transplant team braves winter storm to deliver donor lungs to patient

ST. LOUIS (KTVI) – A St. Louis man is alive thanks to an organ transplant team that persevered through incredible odds. That team had the task of transporting a pair of lungs through some very bad weather.

“It really felt like minutes to spare. It was very high stakes,” said Dr. Katherine Caldwell.
Read the full story.

February 19, 2022August 16, 2022

Creating ‘universal’ transplant organs: New study moves us one step closer.

Scientists successfully converted donated lungs into “universal” transplant organs in a proof-of-concept experiment. That means, theoretically, the lungs could be transplanted into any recipient, regardless of their blood type, as long as the organs were the appropriate size.

In the new study, published Wednesday (Feb. 16) in the journal Science Translational Medicine, the researchers ran experiments on the universal lungs in an ex vivo lung perfusion (EVLP) device, which keeps lungs alive outside the body. Within the next year-and-a-half, the study authors plan to test such organs in a clinical trial with human recipients, Dr. Marcelo Cypel, the surgical director of the Ajmera Transplant Centre, a professor of surgery at the University of Toronto and senior author of the study, told Live Science. Read the full story.