Pennsylvania hospital reports first-ever double transplant

I think this is the first heart-kidney transplant I've heard about. Traditionally, significant kidney disease has been a contraindication for heart transplantation. I read about transplant cardiologists and surgeons at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) who are aggressively taking an alternative approach by performing simultaneous heart and kidney transplantation. In the process, they are helping those who did not seem to have much hope of ever getting a new heart. There have been many kidney/pancreas and heart/lung transplants but heart/kidney transplants are rare indeed.

Lebanon Daily News
The Associated Press
Updated: 09/23/2009 07:53:15 AM EDT

PITTSBURGH—Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh is reporting its first-ever dual organ transplant since the facility started transplanting organs in 1987.

The hospital says a 63-year-old man continues to recover after receiving a transplanted heart and kidney on Aug. 30. The surgery took 10 hours.

The man was suffering from cardiomyopathy (car-dee-OH-my-AW'-path-ee) or a weak heart. His poor circulation, in turn, damaged his kidneys.

Doctors say one advantage to the double-organ transplant is that patients are less likely to reject a transplanted heart if they also receive a kidney at the same time. Researchers aren't sure why that is, but say it may be because the kidneys store immune system cells that would cause a new organ to be rejected.

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