UCSF Joins Forces With CPMC for Rare Nine-Way Kidney Transplant Chain

The chain may be the longest of its kind in a single city over a 36-hour period.

“这在旧金山湾区以前从来没有做过。. 斯蒂芬·汤姆兰诺维奇，加州大学旧金山分校的医学主任 肾脏移植服务. "Logistically, doing nine transplants in such a short period is pretty challenging. 这是一项艰巨的任务."

作为合作的一部分, a total of 18 live donors and recipients underwent surgery in a little more than 36 hours, 九个人捐献，九个人接受新的肾脏. Couriers shuttled the organs back and forth between the two centers as the surgeries took place.

链条外, UCSF doctors performed three additional living donor transplants during the same time period, 在中心度过了忙碌的两天.

为什么需要移植链?

约100,000名美国人和近19名美国人,目前有000名加州人在等待肾脏移植, 根据器官获取和移植网络. Some 5,200 of those patients are being treated at UCSF's transplant center. The center has performed more transplants in its 51-year history than any other U.S. 程序.

事实上, the combined number of UCSF and CPMC patients waiting for kidneys accounts for about 7 percent of the total U.S. 等待列表.

While the wait times to receive a kidney from a deceased donor vary throughout the country, Bay Area patients often remain on the list for a minimum of around six to 10 years.

"I tell my patients their chances are only about one in five," Tomlanovich said. "There's an 80 percent chance that they'll never be transplanted."

结果是, many people with kidney disease look for a healthy relative or friend who is willing to donate. But those potential donors aren't always a good match because of blood type or other, 更复杂的因素，如免疫系统反应.

Transplant chains form when incompatible pairs sign up with hospitals and organizations like the National Kidney Registry, which sifts through hundreds of donors and recipients to find appropriate matches. 随着软件的进步, complex kidney exchanges or "chains" among as many as 60 individuals have become increasingly possible.

“出于他们内心的善良”

典型的“无私的捐赠者”," a living person who donates his or her kidney to a stranger rather than a relative or friend, 启动链条.

“当街上的人说, “我想把我的肾捐给别人,’”十大赌博平台排行榜说。. Ryutaro Hirose是加州大学旧金山分校的移植外科十大赌博平台排行榜. “他们没有朋友或亲戚需要移植. 他们这么做只是出于好心."

里德Moran-Haywood, the altruistic donor who made UCSF and CPMC's nine-transplant chain possible, said he became interested in kidney donation after hearing of an acquaintance's struggle to find a match. 因为他身体很好而且是万能血型, 这位56岁的跑步爱好者说，他觉得这个决定很容易.

"I'm the lucky one: I've had a healthy life," Moran-Haywood said. “我很高兴能帮忙. 在我看来，这是很小的牺牲."

While the physical and mental screening process for altruistic donors remains extensive, doctors believe the long-term risks of living with just one kidney are low for healthy people.

两家旧金山十大赌博平台排行榜合作

Transplant teams at UCSF and CPMC first discussed a possible collaboration months before the transplant chain took place, and that dream became a reality after both hospitals began using the same software 程序 to match donor and recipient pairs.

该软件, 叫MatchGrid, enabled the two centers to combine patient data without compromising privacy and analyze possible matches far more quickly than was previously possible.

“我们在两家十大赌博平台排行榜有两组不同的病人, and we anonymously join them together and see if there are matches within the two 程序s,”十大赌博平台排行榜说。. Steven Katznelson, medical director of CPMC's kidney transplant 程序. “泳池里的人越多, the more likely it is that we'll find a match for any one of our patients.

"We both agree that we stand to serve our patients better by collaborating rather than competing,他补充道.

Both centers expect the cooperation to continue and predict it will produce more large-scale kidney exchanges in the Bay Area.

一个病人的生活改变了

Kidney recipient Helen Hillman is certainly grateful for the teamwork that made her transplant possible. 大约15年前, the 69-year-old Walnut Creek resident learned that her kidneys were functioning at 50 percent of normal.

By 2013 Hillman spent every night hooked up to a dialysis machine. She had to give up beloved activities like traveling, Zumba classes and Pilates. Hillman also found it increasingly difficult to lift her 3-year-old granddaughter.

然后是希尔曼的前嫂子和好朋友, 辛西娅·金斯伯格, 自愿捐肾. The two women weren't a match but joined UCSF's 等待列表 together.

大约一年后，希尔曼接受了她的新肾脏.

"It's going to give me a chance for a new life," Hillman said before her surgery. "I haven't done anything for two years – I haven't traveled because the machine weighs about 60 pounds. 我想去东欧，布达佩斯，俄罗斯.

“我想去的地方太多了."