UCLA Program Aims to Revolutionize Kidney Transplants

New and innovative programs to obtain donor organs have the potential to revolutionize kidney transplantation. At UCLA, for example, transplant experts are studying a program they call "living donor swap."

This program enables the relative or friend of a kidney transplant patient who is not compatible as a donor to "swap" organs with another potential donor who also may be an incompatible match for his or her relative or friend. This greatly broadens the pool of organs available from living donors. "Swapping organs makes sense in such cases," says Albin Gritsch, M.D., UCLA urologist. In the case of a "living donor swap," both transplants are done simultaneously, Dr. Gritsch explains. Advances in livingdonor- transplant technology make the surgery less invasive and the pain easier to manage.

UCLA has been among the pioneers in the field of kidney transplantation, and consistently ranks among the top five centers nationally. Currently, about two-thirds of kidney transplants are performed with organs taken from deceased donors, explains UCLA nephrologist Alan Wilkinson, M.D., and the wait can often be as long as five years, making living-donor transplantation an attractive alternative. Living donors, often family or friends of the transplant patient, currently account for about one third of cases.

The door to increasing living-donor transplantation also has been opened wider with pioneering surgical techniques, including laparoscopic harvesting of donor kidneys, which results in less pain and a quicker recovery, notes Gabriel Danovitch, M.D., director of Kidney and Kidney/Pancreas Transplantation at UCLA.

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• kidney
• transplant
• living
• donor
• swap
• transplantation

[jhamien920]

Aim for it! Go Bruins!

[telewis67]

I WAS PART OF A LIVE KIDNEY CHAIN. BECAUSE OF IT, I LIVE. SO DOES MY BROTHER!!! CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE another2ndchance org TO SEE THIS AMAZING STORY. ALSO FACEBOOK BY THE SAME NAME.

[shinesthrudarain]

@sissleify well if someone gives a kidney and they get kidney failure, they automatically go to the topof the list. so, your logic is fallacious. i dont think youj know what sacrificial love is

[sissleify]

@shinesthrudarain don't take your sisters attitude to personally..its her decision at the end of the day its something you can't force her to do...what would happen if she gave you that kidney and she got renal failure?i ..they got there own lives to live and if they refuse me i will accept that ..and that a beautiful machine is keeping you alive...if a transplant comes it comes but don't wait on it...just be happi for what is now....

[sissleify]

its going to be alright..

[nema1218]

Dr Danovitch's daughter Yael attended my elementary school.She just graduate from UC Berkeley.Just wanted to say that.Dr. Danovicth spoke to CNN back in August 2009 about the subject of organ donor.

[lanahve]

Dr.Danovitch , Wilkenson and their team has given my wife 13 years of additional life. God Bless them. Jerry v. (Lana's husband)

[Scarletvvitch]

Advances in the field of kidney transplantion prove the effectiveness of providing non-evasive procedures to encourage kidney donation. Many ppl don't appeal to kidney donation becuz most aren't aware that

1. They have 2 kidneys

2. Removal is less painful and drastic

3. Moral: Ultimately, they are extending life

For some, organ donation is too great of a psychological nuisance. And, one shouldn't be quick to judge. They must reaffirmed, n'even then-its not garanteed.

[shinesthrudarain]

i disagree. my sister refused to give me a kidney. she said things like i dont want a scar, god didnt tell me to do it. that bs. i dont talk to her notbecause she didnt give me one, but that she decieved me and lied about her blood type. then when i told her she can give me one despite the blood type, sbhe still refused. if someone, especially a sibling, refuses, there is somehting wrong.

[angieskidney]

My brother was too scared to even consider giving me a kidney. I would never assume anyone should give me a kidney because everyone deals with things differently. One potential donor might be too scared of any complications afterwards or complications even during surgery where as others might just think "it is the right thing to do! You don't even need to ask!" .. I knew a man who stopped talking to his brother because his brother wouldn't give him a kidney. That isn't right neither.