YouTube Video from Italy
("Every Day, With the Help of
Everybody, We Transplant a Little
Happiness Into Our Patients")
Watch the video and smile. The Kidney Transplant Team at Dipartimento di
patologia renale e trapianto di rene dell'ospedale Brotzu di Cagliari (Sardinia,
Italy) will brighten your day.
New liver regeneration technology
Big Data can be helpful in the context of transplantation
March 2017: New research shows that a Big Data approach significantly adds efficacy to graft loss and mortality prediction models and is medical record deployable to optimize outcomes. https://t.co/G6peVjTc0U
Could Personalized Medicine be the answer to the risks of immunosupression?
Patient Dies After Face Transplant
Feb 2011: Several face transplants have been done in France. Due to immunosuppression, post-transplant infection is always a risk. This article
describes several cases and indicates one patient died from an infection two
months after transplant. For those who survived, the cosmetic results are very
good.
Read the full article at Lantieri L. et al, Amer Journal of Transplantation 2011;11: 367–78
Polcari AJ, Hugen CM, Farooq AV, Holt DR, Hou SH, Milner JE.
Clin Transplant 2011 Jul-Aug;25(4):633-7
Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine, Maywood, IL, USA.
Abstract
Introduction: While the ethical aspects of transplant tourism have received much attention recently, less has been written about the medical safety of this practice. We retrospectively evaluated the outcomes of patients who purchased organs internationally and presented to our center for follow-up care. Methods: Baseline demographic characteristics were recorded. Post-operative outcomes including patient survival, graft survival, five-yr graft function, and complications were assessed. Results: Eight patients who purchased international organs for transplant were identified. The country of transplant was China (n=3), Pakistan (n=3), India (n=1), and the Philippines (n=1). All patients were born in either Asia or the Middle East and traveled to the region of their ethnicity for transplantation. The mean time to presentation was 49d post-operatively. The overall one- and two-yr patient survival rates were 87% and 75%, respectively. One patient died of miliary tuberculosis and another of Acinetobacter baumanii sepsis. There was one case of newly acquired hepatitis B infection. At last follow-up, all six surviving patients had functioning grafts with a mean creatinine level of 1.26mg/dL at five yr. Conclusion: Although intermediate-term graft function is acceptable, the early morbidity and mortality among transplant tourists is high. These results suggest that the associated risks may not justify the trip.
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