Transplantation News

Researchers developed a new method of measuring the performance of transplant centers given the ramifications of COVID-19, according to data presented at the American Transplant Congress.

For this month’s Infectious Disease News cover story, we touched base with experts in transplant medicine and transplant infectious diseases to discuss recent challenges brought on by the pandemic and the country’s organ shortage crisis.

One-year morality rate and risk for renal failure after receiving a heart transplant were highest in patients on dialysis compared with other groups of patients, according to research presented at the American Transplant Congress.

The FDA on Tuesday approved letermovir for the prevention of cytomegalovirus disease in high-risk adult kidney transplant recipients, Merck announced.

Despite advances in the last 7 decades, some challenges remain for transplantation, including a limited organ supply and improving long-term outcomes, the outgoing president of the American Society of Transplantation said in a presentation.

Transplant medicine and the field of transplant infectious diseases have faced numerous disruptions and challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to experts.

Using deceased kidney donors who had COVID-19 produced similar long-term outcomes for graft survival to donors without the virus, according to research presented at the American Transplant Congress.

Deceased donor kidneys with the hepatitis C virus can show predictive graft survival  beyond 1 year when transplanted into patients without the virus, according to a recently published study.

It has been almost 70 years since the first successful living donor kidney transplant between identical twin brothers was performed at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston.

In March, a news story on the home page of the website for Sierra Donor Services was titled “The struggle is renal.” It is a tease on the word “real” because 89% of those waiting for an organ in California are in need of a kidney.