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For those with damaged or failing organ , electronic organ transplantation is often the only promise of survival without the aid of a machine . Organ contribution saves thousand of life every twelvemonth , andin 2023 , more than 46,000 transplantsfrom both surviving and gone presenter were perform in the U.S. — a interior platter .
Despite higher donor number than ever , need for Hammond organ transplantation consistently outstrips provision , witha person added to the waiting leaning every eight minutes . Faced with this force per unit area , medical professional are invariably seeking innovative solution to the electric organ supply crisis . One thought is to reprocess transplanted organs — but is this possible ?
What would doctors need to watch for when considering whether to transplant an organ that’s already been transplanted?
Although it ’s still a highly observational procedure , " retransplantation of organs is both desirable and feasible,“Dr . Jeffrey Veale , a urologist and kidney transplant surgeon at UCLA Health , and UCLA medical educatee Atieh Dehghani differentiate Live Science in an email consultation . " It allows for the optimum use of scarce presenter resources , broaden the life - years of functioning allografts " — transplanted tissue paper — " that would otherwise be discarded . "
explore into this treatment approach has made a promising start , with several documented cases of successfulkidney , liverandheartretransplants . However , Dr. Pradeep Kadambi , a professor of medicine who speciate in kidney transplantation at the University of Florida College of Medicine — Jacksonville , said the inherent risks of a conventional transplant surgery are compound in a retransplant procedure .
Every operative mathematical process carry some hazard — blood loss , disease transmission and unexpected adjective complications , for exemplar — but organ transplant surgery has the additional difficulty of organ rejection .
What would doctors need to watch for when considering whether to transplant an organ that’s already been transplanted?
" Each human being is unique and we express a set of protein call Human Leucocyte Antigens ( HLA ) , which is akin to DNA fingerprinting , " Kadambi told Live Science in an electronic mail . These antigens deal the surface of every electric organ , take into account the body to greet its own structures and directly discover potentially harmful foreign entities . Consequently , " the eubstance ’s protective mechanism is to reject the [ donated ] organ because it is alien , " Kadambi added .
Related : How long can organs stay outside the soundbox before being transplanted ?
Transplant patients are usually dictate immunosuppressive drugs , which undermine theimmune system ’s reply to prevent it from attacking the new harmonium . This lifelong therapy leaves patient much more susceptible to other infection , so doctors must cautiously balance the need to keep rejection while avoiding other complication .
Finding a close antigen match — known as immunological compatibility — come down the risk of exposure of rejection , but this introduces another difficulty for subaltern graft . " For retransplanted organs , the immunological landscape becomes even more complex because these organs may carry additional antigen from anterior recipients , increasing the risk of sensitization and rejection , " Veale and Dehghani said .
But it ’s not just the immunologic considerations that determine whether an organ transplanting is successful ; the health of the donor , recipient and organ itself all take on a part . Underlying condition such as high bloodline press or diabetes in either the donor or the recipient role can affect how well the affected role ’s body respond to the new organ , while the quality of the transplanted tissue influences both the operative complexity and the Hammond organ ’s allowance for the subprogram .
Previous graft surgeries can premise strong-arm differences to the organ which make the procedure more complicated . Surgeons therefore need to be especially thrifty when reusing an otherwise healthy organ , explain Veale and Dehghani .
The scar tissue , shortened watercraft and extended meter without blood circulation associated with retransplant contribute to this difficulty and get up the endangerment further .
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However , with the mean wait for a deceased donor kidney transplantation presently at three to five twelvemonth , Kadambi believes that in certain circumstances , retransplant could be the idealistic solution . Kidneys are the most transplanted organ , and most people have to wait for a kidney from a departed person , as bouncy donation are less common .
" The risks are gamey , but in the correct circumstance , it could be successful , " he say . " The recipient has to be very involved in making this decision for themselves . Our own experience had a few unexpected complications , but we were able to get over those and our patient had a successful effect . "
