April 14, 2010 03:35 PM Eastern Daylight Time
Nation’s Largest Ever Multi-State Paired Kidney Exchange Completed24 Surgery, 12-Transplant Chain First of Its Kind Involves Nine U.S. Transplant Centers
PITTSBURGH--(BUSINESS WIRE)--As participants in the nation’s largest, multi-state paired kidney exchange to date, twelve people with advanced renal disease, including two from the greater Pittsburgh region, have received the gift of life though a groundbreaking new approach to living donor transplantation.
Paired kidney exchanges are designed for transplant candidates who have a willing but incompatible living donor. An organized exchange network matches such donor-recipients with other incompatible pairs for an exchange of suitable donors.
Pittsburgh’s Allegheny General Hospital (AGH) was one of nine US transplant centers to participate in an unprecedented national chain of paired kidney exchanges which took place over the course of approximately two months beginning in early February, 2010.
Organized by the National Kidney Registry and coordinated locally by the Center for Organ Recovery and Education (CORE), the exchange also involved UCLA Medical Center, the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center, the University of Maryland, Saint Barnabas Medical Center (NJ), Utah Medical Center, Montefiore Medical Center (NY), Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center (NJ) and Henrico Doctors' Hospital (VA).
Of the 24 transplant and donor procedures performed in the course of the kidney exchange, three took place at Allegheny General Hospital on February 3.
All of the patients are doing exceptionally well, said Ngoc Thai, MD, PhD, Director of AGH’s Center for Abdominal Transplantation.
“We are thrilled and honored to have participated in a paired kidney exchange of this magnitude. The number of people on the waiting list for kidney transplantation unfortunately continues to far exceed the supply of cadaveric donor organs. Living donor transplantation is a terrific option and the paired exchange process expands this possibility to many more people in need," Dr. Thai said.
According to the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), of approximately 80,000 patients in the United States each year who are listed for kidney transplantation, just 16,000 or so receive a donor organ. The average waiting time for kidney transplantation in the US is now close to four years.
Contacts
Allegheny General Hospital
Dan Laurent, Office: 412-330-4430
Mobile: 412-807-8103
or
National Kidney Registry
Garet Hill, 631-219-0301
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