Transplant

"HAVING 'ORGAN DONOR' ON YOUR DRIVER'S LICENSE OR CARRYING A DONOR CARD IS ALL YOU NEED TO DO TO BE A DONOR" Join us on the next ...

PHOENIX — In what is a first for the Valley in more than two decades, a 17-year-old girl from Glendale, Ariz., became the recipient of a pediatric liver transplant on Dec. 6, the result of collaboration between Phoenix Children's Hospital and Mayo Clinic in Arizona. It is also the first living donor pediatric liver transplant in the Valley. The milestone surgery was all the more unique in that it was a living donor liver transplant, meaning that a donor offered to give up part of her liver to be transplanted into the recipient. Both the donor and the recipient livers will regenerate within a matter of weeks. The donor, a 35-year-old woman from Oklahoma, underwent comprehensive medical and psychological testing to be qualified as a match for the recipient. The donor is the godmother of the recipient, and has known her since she was born. The first surgery began at Mayo Clinic Hospital at 7:30 a.m. when part of the donor's liver was removed in a 3½ hour procedure led by David Mulligan, M.D., Director, Transplant Center, Mayo Clinic in Arizona. The partial liver was put on ice and transported to Phoenix Children's Hospital, where it was transplanted into the recipient. Pediatric liver transplants are primarily done when the child has primary liver disease that may progress to death, with the risk of death that outweighs the risk of transplantation. The recipient's surgery was led by Winston Hewitt, M.D., liver transplant surgeon at Mayo Clinic and surgical director of the Phoenix Children's Hospital Pediatric Liver Transplant Program. Medical director of the program is Tamir Miloh, M.D., Phoenix Children's Hospital. Both patients were reported to be doing well following the combined 8½ hour surgeries. The program marks the only such pediatric program in the Phoenix area for pediatric patients. Previously, patients had to travel to Tucson or out-of-state for the surgery. Certification for the Phoenix Children's Hospital Pediatric Liver Transplant Program was granted by the United Network for Organ Sharing in March 2012, paving the way for the first such program in Arizona to provide an integrated, child-centered liver transplant program that takes place within a dedicated pediatric hospital.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Transplant: A Gift for Life — a one-hour, Emmy Award-winning PBS documentary that includes Mayo Clinic transplant patients, their families, and doctors — will be distributed to public television stations nationwide this month. On Nov. 8, more than 60 PBS stations will air the program simultaneously through the PBS World channel, and many other PBS stations will air the program at various times (check local listings) over the next three years. Every day, 19 Americans die while waiting for an organ transplant. In Transplant: A Gift for Life, TPT National Productions and Minneapolis filmmaker Dennis "Denny" Mahoney explore the stories and science behind organ donation and transplantation. The program includes the compelling stories of Mayo Clinic patients Charles Lewensten, who receives a portion of his daughter Amy (Lewensten) Konsewicz's liver; and Bob Koehs, a lung transplant recipient who reaches out to his deceased donor's family and unexpectedly helps them heal. With intimacy and honesty, this film tells moving stories of courage and love. After his own liver transplant in 2008, Mahoney began working on the program, which quickly became his labor of love. He worked tirelessly on the documentary until his death from cancer last February. He was honored posthumously with a Midwest Regional Emmy Award for Best Topical Documentary in September. The documentary profiles organ recipients and their donors, which include friends, family and strangers. Patients and specialists from the University of Minnesota are also featured. Read more information, or to watch the program online. Mayo Clinic, with campuses in Minnesota, Arizona and Florida, has one of the nation's largest and most experienced transplant practices. More than 200 doctors in transplant medicine and surgery perform about 1,500 transplants a year. More than 110,000 Americans and their families are awaiting lifesaving organ transplants. Read information about donation and how to sign up as a donor.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — October 3, 2012.  Melanoma is on the rise nationally, and transplant recipients and lymphoma patients are far likelier than the average person ...

Melanoma is on the rise, and a Mayo Clinic review has found that transplant recipients and lymphoma patients are more likely to get that form of skin cancer ...

PHOENIX — September 4, 2012.  The Blood and Marrow Transplant Program at Mayo Clinic in Arizona recently reached a milestone by performing its 1,000th adult ...

Facebook has announced that its users are now able to post their organ donor status in an effort to raise awareness for organ donation. This is important news especially for those ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Simply asking patients who are about to receive a bone marrow transplant whether or not they smoke may not prompt them to disclose their tobacco habit or to kick it, and smoking can lead to poorer outcomes after a transplant. Testing patients for traces of a chemical that tobacco leaves behind can identify smokers and open the door for physicians to help them quit, Mayo Clinic researchers say. Their study was presented April 14 at the Society of Behavioral Medicine Conference in New Orleans. Bone marrow transplant patients can face serious consequences from tobacco use after a transplant, such as increased risk of death, complications requiring longer hospitalization and a higher likelihood of developing a secondary medical condition. When asked, some patients say they don't use tobacco, yet tests show they have traces of cotinine in their blood – a metabolite of nicotine and the most commonly employed biochemical marker for tobacco. The researchers estimate that 35 to 44 percent of patients about to have a bone marrow transplant have recently used tobacco. Of those, 14 to 17 percent describe themselves as smokers before and after the transplant. "Reasons for misclassification of smoking status among chronically ill smokers are unclear, but may be impacted by exposure to environmental tobacco smoke, use of nicotine replacement, societal pressure to be smoke-free and distress related to smoking status," says lead researcher Shawna Ehlers, Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic psychologist. "But as health care providers, we need to accurately identify every tobacco user, so we can ensure best patient outcomes and help people return home to their loved ones and the life they are fighting so hard to preserve." Accurate identification of smoking or recent smoking behavior among patients before and after transplants provides a unique opportunity to help tobacco users quit and avoid relapses — also logical considering patients may be in the hospital for a long time and have better access to those programs. Dr. Ehlers says physicians need to reassure patients that disclosing tobacco use is in their best interests and will be treated like any other risk factor. "Until we treat all known risk factors, we are not providing best transplant care," she says. Tests for cotinine can detect tobacco exposure over the last three to five days and can be collected from urine, blood or saliva. The accuracy of cotinine measures in identifying smoking behavior has been estimated to be greater than 90 percent.

An extensive investigation into hepatitis C infections in three transplant patients led investigators to uncover the route of transmission. Mayo Clinic shares the lessons learned. Findings ...

Organ transplantation has seen tremendous improvements over the years.  For example, kidney transplants are very successful operations today...but unless a patient gets an organ from an identical ...

PHOENIX — Mayo Clinic in Arizona has completed more than 200 pancreas transplants since the program opened in 2003, performing the highest number of simultaneous kidney and pancreas transplants annually in Arizona. The benefit of pancreas transplantation is normalization of blood sugar levels, thereby eliminating the need for insulin. In some cases, a pancreas transplant can slow the progression of diabetic complications. Mayo Clinic's first pancreas transplant took place on July 17, 2003, and the 200th transplant took place on Nov. 23, 2011. As of Aug. 31, 2011, according to data collected by the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR), Mayo Clinic in Arizona had performed 152 simultaneous kidney/pancreas transplants and 41 pancreas transplants in the form of pancreas transplant alone, or pancreas-after-kidney transplant. Only two other medical centers in Arizona perform pancreas transplants, with Mayo doing the most simultaneous kidney/pancreas transplants. In 2010, Mayo Clinic in Arizona was the second largest transplant center in the U.S. performing simultaneous kidney/pancreas transplants. Mayo Clinic as a three-site organization (Arizona, Florida and Minnesota) has performed pancreas transplants for more than 20 years for patients having complex diseases such as diabetes. The first pancreas transplant (a simultaneous pancreas/kidney) was performed on Dec. 16, 1987, at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. Since then, a total of 403 pancreas transplants have been completed. At Mayo Clinic in Florida, 147 pancreas transplanted have been performed since the program opened in 2000.

Essam and Dalal Obaid Center for Reconstructive Transplant Surgery has been named to honor benefactor’s parents ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mayo Clinic announced today a ...