Five Have Kidney Transplants In One Go

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Main Category: Transplants / Organ Donations
Also Included In: Urology / Nephrology
Article Date: 20 Nov 2006 - 15:00 PDT

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There were five kidney donors, five recipients, 12 surgeons, 11 anesthesiologists, 18 nurses, and 12 operating rooms - all five patients received new kidneys in one go. A spokesman for the Johns Hopkins Comprehensive Transplant Center said everyone is doing well, donors and recipients. All the donors were women, there were two female and three male recipients. The whole procedure lasted no more than ten hours.

From 7.15 am to 11 am the kidneys were removed from their donors. The implantations started at 1 pm and ended at 5.15 pm.

This is a world first quintuple kidney transplant. The same center carried out a triple kidney transplant last year. While most kidney transplants worldwide involve dead donors, doctors say success rates are better if the donor is alive. In the USA about 10,000 kidney transplants came from dead donors while about 6,500 came from live ones in 2005.

There are about 70,000 people in the USA, at any one time, waiting for a kidney transplant - most have to wait about five years. About 40% never get a new kidney, either because they die or their health deteriorates too much.

Dr. Robert Montgomery, Director, Johns Hopkins Comprehensive Transplant Center, said this event was an example of what humans are capable of when everyone works together.

The center says all the donors were released from hospital by 17th November. they expect all recipients to be released by 20th November.

-- Images of the transplant
-- The Johns Hopkins Comprehensive Transplant Center (CTC)

"Five donor-recipient pairs interchange kidneys in simultaneous group procedure"
Johns Hopkins Comprehensive Transplant Center
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Written by: Christian Nordqvist
Editor: Medical News Today
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today

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