Solid Organ Transplants Reach Record at Mayo Clinic in 2010
Transplants include heart, kidney, liver and pancreas
Monday, January 03, 2011
PHOENIX — Mayo Clinic in Arizona performed a record 307 solid organ transplants as of year-end 2010, surpassing Mayo's previous high volume mark for a one-year period, which was 301 transplants.
Solid organ transplants encompass heart, kidney, liver and pancreas. Similar transplant volumes are recorded at all three Mayo Clinic sites — Arizona, Florida and Minnesota — resulting in Mayo, cumulatively, performing more solid organ transplants than any other medical center in the U.S.
Individually, each of the three Mayo Clinic sites ranks in the top 25 to 30 transplant sites nationally. Mayo Clinic in Arizona is the largest volume transplant center in Arizona, and the third largest in the Southwest.
Of the 307 solid organ transplants completed in 2010, 199 were kidney, 26 were simultaneous kidney/pancreas, 60 were liver and 22 were heart.
Highlights from 2010 include:
Mayo Clinic in Arizona is one of only a few medical centers in the U.S. to perform liver transplants as a way of treating a relatively rare bile duct cancer called Cholangiocarcinoma. The transplant procedure offers new hope and increased survival rates for patients with the disease.
A creative way of expanding the pool of available kidneys, called paired kidney exchange, is actively taking place at Mayo, a process in which an altruistic donor leads off an exchange of organs among strangers who are a match. Mayo performed five paired kidney exchange surgeries in 2009 and five again in 2010.
Mayo performed 15 living donor liver transplants in 2010, a surgery in which a healthy donor — a relative or a non-relative — donates some 60 percent of his or her liver to a patient in need. The liver, for both the donor and recipient, regenerates within a matter of weeks. The Living Donor Liver Transplant program at Mayo is the top performing program in the U.S. in terms of patient and graft survival rates.
In March, a New Mexico patient became the 100th patient to be the recipient of a living donor liver transplant at Mayo Clinic Hospital. In May, Mayo performed its second "domino" liver transplant, a unique surgery in which there is an exchange of livers, beginning with a deceased donor and then an exchange between two patients.
Mayo Clinic was the last hospital in Arizona to start a pancreas transplant program, but now, because of graft and patient survival rates, the program has emerged as the largest pancreas transplant center in Arizona.
History was made in May 2010 when a Mayo Clinic patient became the first in the U.S. to be discharged from the hospital after waiting almost two years for a smaller version of an artificial heart. The story made national headlines when the patient, whose own heart had been removed, left the hospital with an artificial heart, powered by a 13-pound driver. Now he can spend the holidays at home with his family.
Mayo Clinic in Arizona has a program, the only one in the U.S., patterned after the original SWAT team, the Los Angeles Special Weapons and Tactics program. Mayo's Cardiac Support Team, on an emergency basis, is deployed to referring community hospitals in Arizona to treat or retrieve patients in severe cardiac shock and too unstable to transport. Often the patient can be implanted with ventricular support devices and then transported to Mayo for more care.
To request an appointment at Mayo Clinic, please call
480-422-1490 for the Arizona campus, 904-494-6484 for the Florida campus, or 507-216-4573 for the Minnesota campus.
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About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit worldwide leader in medical care, research and education for people from all walks of life. For more information, visit MayoClinic.com or MayoClinic.org/news.
Contact Information
For more information, contact:
Lynn Closway
Public Affairs
480-301-4222
Mayo Clinic
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http://www.mayoclinic.org/news2011-sct/6128.html
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