Program offers hope for kidney patients

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Program offers hope for kidney patients
Express-News Editorial Board -
Web Posted: 06/09/2010 12:00 CDT
 
A successful and growing local living kidney donor program set up to allow two-way and three-way organ swaps could result in a significant number of patients moving off the kidney transplants list faster.

The need for organs has historically outweighed the supply of donors, and many patients have died after spending years on a waiting list, especially in regions with a high diabetes rate such as South Texas.

More than 85,000 patients across the country are waiting for kidney transplant, but health officials report listing only about 10,000 donors nationally.

In San Antonio, about 1,600 patients are on the transplant waiting list. Texas has only about 100 kidney donors each year.

The living kidney donor exchanges at Methodist Specialty and Transplant Hospital are allowing doctors to match transplant candidates whose own living donors are incompatible with someone who is ready to donate an organ for someone else on the waiting list.

This program marks a significant breakthrough that already is saving lives.

Local transplant experts say some people have been on the waiting list for more than 12 years and have someone willing to donate a kidney but they can't because they are not a match.

The two- and three-way exchanges are providing hope for many desperate patients who thought they were in impossible situations.

Earlier this year, Sam Houston High School senior Teneva Pitts donated a kidney to her father, Randy Davies, as part of three-way swap that included three organ donors and three recipients matched up through a database.

Among the many upsides to the live donor donation program is that the organs from a live donor last 15 to 16 years compared to eight years if harvested from a deceased donor, and the rejection rate is only about 7 percent.

For the 350,000 dialysis patients across the country, that is indeed good news. This innovative approach to kidney transplants has the potential to dramatically improve the odds of finding suitable donors.

Potential living donors and those in need of a kidney should know that these organ swaps are a real possibility that expands the pool of potential matches and provides new opportunities.
 
 
 
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