Transplant

A “timely living donor kidney transplant” refers to when a patient receives a kidney from a living donor either before beginning dialysis or within a year of beginning dialysis. Research links timely transplants to better outcomes and higher survival rates for patients. A new study indicates there has been no increase in the utilization of this transplant method since 2006. Scientists from the Mayo Clinic and the University of Michigan studied the data of over 68,000 patients who received living donor transplants between 2000 and 2012.

 

Currently, there are over 100,000 patients on the kidney transplant waiting list, while only around 17,000 patients receive a transplant every year. A device is in development by a team of scientists at Vanderbilt University in Nashville to try and eliminate this organ shortage.  They are developing an implantable artificial kidney that uses microchip filters and live kidney cells to clean the blood.