April 6, 2016 – Incompatible Kidney

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Anchor lead:  Now kidneys may not need to be matched for transplantation, Elizabeth Tracey reports

If you need a kidney transplant, you can now accept one from almost anyone, a study led by Dorry Segev, a transplant surgeon at Johns Hopkins, and many colleagues from multiple transplant centers has shown.

Segev: It’s called incompatible kidney transplantation.  We showed with 22 transplant centers using this protocol that if you undergo incompatible transplantation compared to your next best available option of waiting for a compatible organ you’ll survive twice as long by undergoing this procedure.  Where in the past we would say if you have a compatible donor you can have a transplant today we can say if you have any donor you can have a transplant.  :29

Segev says the technique relies on depleting antibodies from the recipient’s blood that would cause a transplanted kidney to be rejected. He hopes incompatible kidney transplantation will help the tens of thousands of people currently on the waiting list for a kidney.  At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.