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first 6-way kidney transplant

baltimore (ap) — johns hopkins surgeons transplanted a half-dozen kidneys simultaneously, an operation believed to be the first of its kind, hospital officials announced tuesday.

the transplants conducted saturday were made possible when a so-called altruistic donor, who was willing to donate to anyone, was found to be a match for one of six transplant candidates. five of the candidates had a willing donor whose kidney was incompatible with their particular friend or relative, but a match for another of the six.

the 10-hour surgeries used six operating rooms and nine surgical teams.

"all 12 are doing great, the six kidneys are working well," said dr. robert montgomery, director of hopkins' transplant center and head of the transplant team.

the six-way transplant follows a quintuple transplant performed in 2006 at the hospital and several triple transplants. last week, doctors at chicago's northwestern memorial hospital performed simultaneous transplants of four kidneys.

most kidney transplants use organs taken from people who have died, but doctors prefer organs from live donors because the success rates are higher. the donors and recipients in the six-way transplant were matched using a living-donor system developed at johns hopkins.

montgomery has advocated a wider system of connecting altruistic donors, transplant candidates and incompatible but willing donors to increase the number of available organs.

randy bolten, whose brother is president bush's chief of staff, josh bolten, was among the donors. he couldn't donate a kidney to his wife, jeanne heise, but he was a match for another recipient.

heise, who has suffered from kidney disease for more than 30 years, was about to go on dialysis when the chain of transplants became possible.

"we want to spread the word about this sort of group surgery and living organ donation," heise said in a statement issued by the national kidney foundation of northern california.

"the waiting list for a kidney is very long and too many people die while waiting. with this group procedure, more and more people can beat kidney disease and live long productive lives."

the united network for organ sharing knows of no other six-way transplant, spokeswoman amanda claggett said. she added that so-called paired donations are still very rare.

more than 252,000 kidney transplants have been performed in the united states since unos started keeping data in 1988; 87,000 of the kidneys came from living donors. there have been only 301 transplants performed through so-called paired kidney exchange, including 122 in 2007, claggett said.

she said more than 75,000 people are waiting for kidney transplants and 4,352 died while waiting for a kidney last year.

source

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• 4/13/2008
• by InsayneJayne

Video:

transplant patient can feel face

the french woman who had the first face transplant in the world, says she has feeling in the new tissue, in an interview she gave to the french sunday paper le journal du dimanche.

in november of last year, doctors replaced a gaping hole in her face with the partial face of a donor. the transplant included the nose, mouth and chin.

dinoire, who lost part of her face after being viciously attacked by her pet labrador, says she is glad that thanks to the doctors, she is able to go outdoors again.

although she still has difficulty pronouncing sounds as “b” and ”p” properly, she believes that in time she will have no trouble with speaking.

she says she still only leaves her apartment if accompanied and has not yet replaced the mirrors she removed from her home after the accident.

the difficult part is getting to know herself again, she said, since she now looks considerably different than she used to look before her dog attacked her.

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• 5/1/2006
• by qtnik

Video:

first-ever double arm transplant

pressa german farmer who lost both his arms in an accident has been successfully fitted with two new limbs in the first complete double arm transplant, his surgeons said. (aug. 3).

• 4.4177/5
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• 8/9/2008
• by truth-is-the-nemesis

Video:

amateur transplants - nhs song

another song by amateur transplants (adam kay and suman biswas, creators of the london underground song), this time they're getting political.

vvisit their site to hear more and buy their album for charity
www.amateurtransplants.com

• 3.2/5
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• 8/25/2006
• by zealous

Video:

tarzan’s transplants

one day, tarzan is swinging his way through the jungle when he looses grip and makes a terrible fall.

when he wakes up in the animal hospital a few days later, the gorilla doctor greets him.

“what happened?” tarzan asks groggily.

“you were in a horrible accident,” the gorilla tells him, “and you have lost your right arm, your left eye and, i am very sorry to say, your dick.”

tarzan peeks under the covers in shock; only to find out he indeed has no dick.

“don’t worry,” the doctor gorilla says, “we do have some donor limbs for you. the arm of an orangutan, the eye of an eagle, and the trunk of a baby elephant. we will transplant them tomorrow.”

relieved, tarzan lies back in bed and falls asleep.

three weeks after the transplantations, tarzan is back at the doctor’s.

“well,” asks the gorilla, “how do you like your donor limbs so far?”

“oh, they are great!” exclaims tarzan. “the arm is so strong, i can swing for hours now without getting tired. the eye is so good, i can see from 5 miles away when jane has prepared dinner...”

“what about the trunk?” asks the doctor.

“well, truthfully, it takes some getting used to,” says tarzan.

“why?” asks the doctor.

“because,” tarzan responds, “every 5 minutes, it sticks a peanut up my ass.”

• 3.5192/5
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• 3/19/2006
• by qtnik

Video:

face transplant patient: ‘i'm not a monster’

cleveland (ap) — when connie culp heard a little kid call her a monster because of the shotgun blast that left her face horribly disfigured, she pulled out her driver's license to show the child what she used to look like. years later, as the nation's first face transplant recipient, she's stepped forward to show the rest of the world what she looks like now.

her expressions are still a bit wooden, but she can talk, smile, smell and taste her food again. her speech is at times a little tough to understand. her face is bloated and squarish. her skin droops in big folds that doctors plan to pare away as her circulation improves and her nerves grow, animating her new muscles.

but culp had nothing but praise for those who made her new face possible.

"i guess i'm the one you came to see today," the 46-year-old ohio woman said at a news conference at the cleveland clinic, where the groundbreaking operation was performed. but "i think it's more important that you focus on the donor family that made it so i could have this person's face."

until tuesday, culp's identity and how she came to be disfigured were a secret.

culp's husband, thomas, shot her in 2004, then turned the gun on himself. he went to prison for seven years. his wife was left clinging to life. the blast shattered her nose, cheeks, the roof of her mouth and an eye. hundreds of fragments of shotgun pellet and bone splinters were embedded in her face. she needed a tube into her windpipe to breathe. only her upper eyelids, forehead, lower lip and chin were left.

a plastic surgeon at the cleveland clinic, dr. risal djohan, got a look at her injuries two months later. "he told me he didn't think, he wasn't sure, if he could fix me, but he'd try," culp recalled.

she endured 30 operations to try to fix her face. doctors took parts of her ribs to make cheekbones and fashioned an upper jaw from one of her leg bones. she had countless skin grafts from her thighs. still, she was left unable to eat solid food, breathe on her own, or smell.

source, source

• 4.7536/5
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• 5/6/2009
• by InsayneJayne

Video:

amateur transplants - disney time

a song about cartoons.

• 4/5
• 456
• 0
• 8/27/2006
• by zealous

Video:

first face transplant

isabelle dinoire, seen at a february 6 news conference, says she has complete feeling in her face.

• 2.5652/5
• 4311
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• 5/1/2006
• by Dolphin Child

Video:

transplants

the patient demanded, "doc, i just must have a liver transplant, a kidney transplant, a cornea transplant, a lung transplant, and a heart transplant." "what?" yelled the doctor. "tell me, exactly why you think you need all these transplants." "well," explained the patient, "my boss told me that i needed to get reorganized."

• 2.125/5
• 11
• 0
• 4/10/2009
• by TigerRenko

Video:

transplant patient

the patient demanded, "doc, i just must have a liver transplant, a kidney transplant, a cornea transplant, a lung transplant, and a heart transplant." "what?" yelled the doctor. "tell me, exactly why you think you need all these transplants." "well," explained the patient, "my boss told me that i needed to get reorganized."

• 2.5/5
• 54
• 0
• 5/25/2009
• by TigerRenko

Video:

iraq vet dies after receiving cancerous lungs in transplant

an iraq war veteran died after receiving cancerous lungs from a heavy smoker in a transplant.

matthew millington, 31, a corporal in the queen’s royal lancers, had the operation to save him from an incurable respiratory condition.

but the organs were from a donor who was believed to have smoked 30 to 50 roll-up cigarettes a day. a tumor was found after the transplant, and its growth was accelerated by the drugs that mr millington took to prevent his body rejecting the organs.

because he was a cancer patient, he was not allowed to receive a further pair of lungs, under hospital rules. the soldier had radiotherapy but died at home in stoke-on-trent in february last year.

his widow, siobhan, said: “all matthew wanted was another set of lungs. he said: ‘they have given me a dud pair, get me another set’. he thought he could beat it, but his condition deteriorated so fast from then.”

papworth hospital, cambridge, the country’s main heart and lung transplant center, carried out the operation. it said that early x-rays on the organs did not find any signs of cancer.

mr millington had learned that he had a serious lung condition in 2006 and was given two years to live unless he had a transplant.

a donor was found and the double lung transplant went ahead in april 2007. the cancer was discovered only six months after the operation, because of a lack of communication between radiographers and consultants. the tumor had grown from 9mm to 13mm in that period.

an inquest was told last week that an internal investigation at papworth pinpointed a string of problems, including difficulties with communication, record-keeping and patient handover.

in mr millington’s case a radiographer had failed to highlight the growth of the cancerous tumor.

discounting verdicts of neglect or misadventure, ian smith, the north staffordshire coroner, delivered a narrative verdict, recording that mr millington had died from “complications of transplant surgery”.

the hospital defended using smokers’ lungs for transplants, saying that all organs were screened rigorously.

speaking after the inquest, mr millington’s father lester, 61, said: “i have never contemplated further action. i wanted to get to the inquest but i was 99.9 per cent certain that nothing they did wrong was done wrong wilfully. it is a fact that 51 per cent of all lungs transplanted at papworth come from donors who smoked.

“without using such lungs many more people would die without receiving a transplant.”

source

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• 10/13/2009
• by InsayneJayne

Video:

candidate sought for first-ever face transplant

cleveland -- doctors at the cleveland clinic are getting ready to perform the world's first face transplant.

but everything has to line up just right for this life-changing event to happen, reported wews-tv in cleveland.

dr. maria siemionow, a cleveland clinic plastic surgeon, knows how to fix body parts torn apart by accident and disease, but now she hopes to do the one thing no surgical team in the world has ever tried: she wants to transplant a face to someone who desperately wants it.

today's best treatments still leave many victims with freakish, scar-tissue masks that don't look or move like natural skin.

"almost (every) patient who doesn't have a face, and there are patients like that, amazingly who are staying in the house for many, many years," said siemionow. "i think the most important part will be to bring those patients back to society."

wftv

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• 11/9/2005
• by xxoozero

Video:

american surgeons plan first face transplant

us surgeons are to interview a shortlist of patients hoping to be the first to receive a face transplant following several tests on bodies donated to medical research.

now the cleveland clinic team will choose a patient whose face is disfigured to receive a "new" face from a dead donor.

the chance it will work is around 50% and experts have expressed safety and ethical concerns about the procedure.

the recipient would have to take powerful anti-rejection drugs for life, which carry considerable long-term health risks, says the royal college of surgeons of england, which formed a working party to look at the issue earlier this year.

also, it is not known how well an individual and their loved ones would adapt psychologically to a completely new face and it is hard to predict what the person would look like after a face transplant.

the procedure would involve taking skin and underlying tissues from a dead donor and placing them on the living recipient. computer modelling suggests the new face would neither resemble the donor nor recipient's pre-injury self but doctors believe the face should take on more of the characteristics of the skeleton of the recipient than the soft tissues of the donor.

the recipient should be able to eat, drink and communicate again through a wide variety of facial expressions and mannerisms.

after a year of discussions, the cleveland clinic won approval to go ahead with the operation from an internal review board, which included surgeons, psychiatrists, social workers, therapists, nurses and patient advocates.

surgeon maria siemionow and her team will interview five men and seven women as potential candidates for the 8-10 hour operation.

dr siemionow told associated press: "you want to choose patients who are really disfigured, not someone who has a little scar."

yet they will have to have enough healthy skin for traditional grafts in case the transplant fails.

they will be told that their face would be removed and replaced with one from a cadaver, matched for tissue type, age, sex and skin colour.

bbc news