Nurse Who Works at Organ Procurement Center Donates Kidney<br /><br />(September 10) Joyce Roush, a nurse who works at the Indiana Organ Procurement Organization, decided to <font color="#0000FF">donate a kidney</font> after attending a seminar and hearing of the new laparoscopic nephrectomy procedure. Her kidney was successfully transplanted into a 13-year-old boy.<br /><br />Laparoscopic Nephrectomy News<br /><br />There has always been a shortage of cadaver kidneys for transplantation. For those willing to donate one of their own kidneys, it meant facing a great deal of pain and a long recovery. Many said the surgery was harder on the donor than the recipient. <br /><br />In the last few years, transplant surgeons have been perfecting a new procedure, the laparscopic nephrectomy, which greatly reduces the sizes of the incisions and the injury to the donor. The brother of San Antonio Spur Sean Elliott had a laparoscopic nephrectomy when he donated a kidney on Aug 16. He participated in a news conference two days after the surgery. Compare the stories of this <font color="#0000FF">laparoscopic nephrectomy donor</font> and this <font color="#0000FF">traditional open nephrectomy donor</font>. <br /><br /> <font color="#0000FF">Dexterity Surgical</font> makes a device called the <font color="#0000FF">Pneumo Sleeve(TM)</font> which is used during hand-assisted laparoscopic nephrectomies.<br /><br />Here is a listing of articles on the <font color="#0000FF">laparoscopic nephrectomy</font> procedure from the latest scientific journals (PubMed search). <br /><br />Live Donor Provides Kidney to Unknown Recipient<br /><br />A 50-year-old woman approached the University of Minnesota and <font color="#0000FF">offered one of her kidneys</font> to anyone that needed it. The transplant was done and neither the donor nor the recipient knows each other's identity. <br /><br />Medical Breakthrough<br /><br />(August 24) Doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital performed <font color="#0000FF">a double transplant</font> on a 56-year old woman, using a kidney and bone marrow donated by her sister, which eliminated the need for her to continually take immunosuppressant drugs. She received cyclosporine for only a short time immediately after the transplants. The sister's bone marrow "taught" her own immune system not to reject the kidney. <br /><br />It's an incredible story. The woman had bone marrow cancer, has cancer treatments, the treatments destroy her kidneys, and then she doesn't tolerate dialysis well. She undergoes an experimental treatment, which has put her cancer in remission and provided her with a new, functioning kidney and this treatment ends up providing a breakthrough case for blending the immune systems of receipient and donor for organ transplants.<br /><br />Here is the Massachusetts General Hospital <font color="#0000FF">web site</font>.<br /><br />Other Transplant News<br /><br /> <font color="#0000FF">Sean Elliott</font> of the NBA Champions San Antonio Spurs underwent a kidney transplant August 16, just two months after playing in the NBA finals. <br /><br />August is National Minority Organ Donation Awareness Month and was highlighted in this <font color="#0000FF">ceremony in Miami</font> last week.<br /><br />Xenotransplantation News<br /><br />A <font color="#0000FF">new study</font> found that the Porcine Endogenous Retrovirus (PERV) had not been passed to humans in 160 cases where pig tissues were used in treatments for burns or transplants of pancreatic cells.<br /><br />The study was run by Imutran Ltd., the Novartis Pharma AG company at the forefront of <font color="#0000FF">xenotransplantation research</font>. <br /><br />Baxter's <font color="#0000FF">Nextran division</font> is also working on xenotransplantation.<br /><br /> <br /><br /><br />[This message has been edited by Gary Peterson (edited 09-10-1999).]

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