I woke up to great news this morning about kidney transplants. it seems that the number of kidney transplants carried out each year in Britain could increase dramatically. This is because it has been discovered that patients whose hearts had stopped before death could be considered possible donors. The researchers found that only 32 per cent of the 1,600 kidney transplants carried out in Britain each year receive organs from people whose hearts have stopped. This is because of the previously held belief that kidneys without a blood supply might quickly break down and become unviable. Those kidneys have been regarded by surgeons and some patients as being inferior to those taken from brain-dead donors whose hearts have been kept beating until after the organ is removed.

The findings of the researchers in Cambridge indicate that kidneys from recently deceased donors perform just as well as those from brain-dead donors. These findings could lead to significant reforms in transplant policy within the NHS that could actually make as many as another 600 donor kidneys available each year.

Currently one in ten of the 7,000 people waiting for a kidney transplant dies before a suitable organ is found. Now, provided that the organs can be transplanted within 12 hours of death they have been shown to be as effective and safe as those from a brain-dead donor.

Great news!