Double Transplants May Offer One Solution to Short Supply of Donated Kidneys

Medications post organ transplant can cause kidney complications that lead to the need for a kidney transplant in some cases, and this study from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center will be of interest to patients on the waiting list for a kidney. The press release also offers a good explanation of how kidney transplants are performed.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Transplanting a pair of kidneys with limited function into one patient can be just as successful as the standard procedure in which a patient receives a single kidney, according to new research at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.

“Performing double transplants using kidneys that would otherwise be discarded may be one viable solution to the growing shortage of organs for transplantation,” said Robert Stratta, M.D., co-author of a study being presented today at a meeting of the Central Surgical Association in Louisville, Ky.

During the 45-month study period, 19 patients underwent double transplants using organs from deceased donors that had been turned down by other centers because of limited function. The kidneys had marginal filtering capacity either because they were very small – from children – or they were from older adults who had begun to lose some kidney function...full press release.