Most renal transplant candidates are ready to receive a kidney from a donor at increased risk of viral infection, according to a study published in an upcoming issue of Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN). The results suggest that patients with kidney disease can make rational compromise between the strengths and risks are conferred by the kidneys donated.

Since thousands of patients die each year in the United States awaiting a kidney transplant, greater efforts are needed to expand the pool of kidneys for transplantation. These efforts could include allowing patients to receive organs less than ideal, for example, people died at a greater risk of viral infection.

In these cases, patients must weigh the benefits of receiving a transplant against the small risk of serious infection such as HIV. Dialysis patients average 20% chance of dying each year, similar to the rate of death from metastatic cancer.

(more…)

More than half of kidneys from donors in the U.S. have contracted the hepatitis C are discarded, despite the need for patients with hepatitis C, which can cause death waiting for an organ safely, Johns Hopkins research suggests.

In a study of national data published online in the American Journal of Transplantation, the researchers say that if the results are slightly worse than patients with hepatitis C receive the bodies of hepatitis C, the benefits of transplantation over time can be greater than the risk of waiting – perhaps more than a year – for a kidney hepatitis C negative.

Patients with hepatitis C are positive, 12 percent of the population suffering from renal failure and patients have a higher risk of death in dialysis compared with those without the virus, indicating the study.

“Nationally, the kidneys from infected donors are well established, and refuse to patients in need,” said transplant surgeon Dorry L. Segev, MD, PhD, associate professor of surgery at Johns Hopkins schools of Medicine and director the study. “Many of these kidney transplant does not use at all, in fact, the referral of patients with hepatitis C positive with an average of unnecessary wait another year for a healthy body.”

(more…)