Role of cardiac death donors may reduce kidney wait list

A NEW study that shows kidneys from donors who died from heart-related ailments are just as suitable for transplant as those from brain-death donors could drastically reduce transplant waiting lists in Ireland.

In research published by the UK medical journal the Lancet, studies of 9,000 patients revealed that cardiac-death donor kidneys lasted as long and worked just as well as brain-death donor kidneys.

Speaking about the findings, British transplant surgeon and co-author of the study Dr Dominic Summers said that “cardiac-death donors are an extremely important and overlooked source of high-quality donor kidneys”.

He said “the widespread use of this technique will increase donation rates and save lives”.

There are 550 people waiting for a kidney transplant in the Republic. The average waiting time is more than two years, with some kidney disease sufferers waiting up to 10 years for a match.

Currently, all transplants from deceased donors in Ireland come from “brain dead” donors who have typically suffered a car crash, brain haemorrhage or a severe head injury.

Mark Murphy, chief executive of the Irish Kidney Association, said: “Other countries have been more imaginative about transplantation – we need to learn from their research. There’s nothing to stop this happening in Ireland.”

Mr Murphy said that cardiac-death transplants can be more complex and expensive, with transplant staff having to remain on standby until the death before quickly retrieving the organ.

However, he said “the cost savings, not to mention the lifestyle benefits to the patient, would be significant”.

He said eight European countries already perform transplants with cardiac-death organs, with 30 per cent of UK transplants already coming from this source.

Prof Peter Conlon, a consultant in nephrology at Beaumont Hospital, said he would be in favour of performing such transplants here. “This is something that we’ve been looking at for the past year or two. We did 170 kidney transplants last year, but with organ donation rates dropping, we’ll be lucky to do 130 this year.”