Deceased donor organ allocation in pediatric transplantation: A historical narrative.

BACKGROUND: Since the earliest clinical successes in solid organ transplantation, the proper method of organ allocation for children has been a contentious subject. Over the past 30-35 years, the medical and social establishments of various countries have favored some degree of preference for children on the respective waiting lists. However, the specific policies to accomplish this have varied widely and changed frequently between organ type and country. METHODS: Organ allocation policies over time were examined. This review traces the reasons behind and the measures/principles put in place to promote early deceased donor transplantation in children. RESULTS: Preferred allocation in children has been approached in a variety of ways and with varying degrees of commitment in different solid organ transplant disciplines and national medical systems. CONCLUSION: The success of policies to advantage children has varied significantly by both organ and medical system. Further work is needed to optimize allocation strategies for pediatric candidates.

Factors predicting kidney delayed graft function among recipients of simultaneous liver-kidney transplantation: A single-center experience.

BACKGROUND: Kidney delayed graft function (kDGF) remains a challenging problem following simultaneous liver and kidney transplantation (SLKT) with a reported incidence up to 40%. Given the scarcity of renal allografts, it is crucial to minimize the development of kDGF among SLKT recipients to improve patient and graft outcomes. We sought to assess the role of preoperative recipient and donor/graft factors on developing kDGF among recipients of SLKT. METHODS: A retrospective review of 194 patients who received SLKT in the period from January 2004 to March 2017 in a single center was performed to assess the effect of preoperative factors on the development of kDGF. RESULTS: Kidney delayed graft function was observed in 95 patients (49%). Multivariate analysis revealed that donor history of hypertension, cold static preservation of kidney grafts [versus using hypothermic pulsatile machine perfusion (HPMP)], donor final creatinine, physiologic MELD, and duration of delay of kidney transplantation after liver transplantation were significant independent predictors for kDGF. kDGF is associated with worse graft function and patient and graft survival. CONCLUSIONS: Kidney delayed graft function has detrimental effects on graft function and graft survival. Understanding the risks and combining careful perioperative patient management, proper recipient selection and donor matching, and graft preservation using HPMP would decrease kDGF among SLKT recipients.

Outcomes of shipped live donor kidney transplants compared with traditional living donor kidney transplants.

The disparity between kidney transplant candidates and donors necessitates innovations to increase organ availability. Transporting kidneys allows for living donors and recipients to undergo surgery with a familiar transplant team, city, friends, and family. The effect of shipping kidneys and prolonged cold ischemia time (CIT) with living donor transplantation outcomes is not clearly known. This retrospective matched (age, gender, race, and year of procedure) cohort study compared allograft outcomes for shipped live donor kidney transplants and nonshipped living donor kidney transplants. Fifty-seven shipped live donor kidneys were transplanted from 31 institutions in 26 cities. The mean shipping distance was 1634 miles (range 123-2811) with mean CIT of 12.1 ± 2.8 h. The incidence of delayed graft function in the shipped cohort was 1.8% (1/57) compared to 0% (0/57) in the nonshipped cohort. The 1-year allograft survival was 98% in both cohorts. There were no significant differences between the mean serum creatinine values or the rates of serum creatinine decline in the immediate postoperative period even after adjusted for gender and differences in recipient and donor BMI. Despite prolonged CITs, outcomes for shipped live donor kidney transplants were similar when compared to matched nonshipped living donor kidney transplants.

Kidney paired donation in the presence of donor-specific antibodies.

Incompatible donor/recipient pairs with broadly sensitized recipients have difficulty finding a crossmatch-compatible match, despite a large kidney paired donation pool. One approach to this problem is to combine kidney paired donation with lower-risk crossmatch-incompatible transplantation with intravenous immunoglobulin. Whether this strategy is non-inferior compared with transplantation of sensitized patients without donor-specific antibody (DSA) is unknown. Here we used a protocol including a virtual crossmatch to identify acceptable crossmatch-incompatible donors and the administration of intravenous immunoglobulin to transplant 12 HLA-sensitized patients (median calculated panel reactive antibody 98%) with allografts from our kidney paired donation program. This group constituted the DSA(+) kidney paired donation group. We compared rates of rejection and survival between the DSA(+) kidney paired donation group with a similar group of 10 highly sensitized patients (median calculated panel reactive antibody 85%) that underwent DSA(-) kidney paired donation transplantation without intravenous immunoglobulin. At median follow-up of 22 months, the DSA(+) kidney paired donation group had patient and graft survival of 100%. Three patients in the DSA(+) kidney paired donation group experienced antibody-mediated rejection. Patient and graft survival in the DSA(-) kidney paired donation recipients was 100% at median follow-up of 18 months. No rejection occurred in the DSA(-) kidney paired donation group. Thus, our study provides a clinical framework through which kidney paired donation can be performed with acceptable outcomes across a crossmatch-incompatible transplant.

Intraoperative opioid and analgesic adjuvant administration practice patterns following implementation of an enhanced recovery after surgery protocol for laparoscopic donor nephrectomy.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: The primary aim of this study is to understand how intraoperative medication administration patterns change in response to ERAS® protocol implementation for patients who underwent laparoscopic donor nephrectomy. DESIGN: Single-center, retrospective analysis of laparoscopic donor nephrectomy patients. SETTING: Large tertiary academic medical center. PATIENTS: We divided all cases of laparoscopic donor nephrectomies (n = 929) over seven years into three approximately equal time periods: Pre-ERAS 1 (n = 317), Pre-ERAS 2 (n = 297) and Post-ERAS (n = 315). MEASUREMENTS: We examined patient demographics, intraoperative opioid and non-opioid pain adjuvant administration, Post Anesthesia Recovery Unit (PACU) pain scores and opioid use as well as PACU and hospital lengths of stay (LOS). MAIN RESULTS: Segmented regression analysis of interrupted time series was utilized to evaluate the association of ERAS protocol implementation with the amount of intraoperative opioid and non-opioid pain adjuvant use. In adherence to our institutional ERAS protocol, there was a significant reduction in intraoperative fentanyl use after ERAS protocol of -70.2µg (95% CI -106.0, -34.2, p < 0.001) and a significant increase in intraoperative hydromorphone use of 0.47 mg (95% CI 0.284, 0.655, p < 0.001). However, in contrary to our ERAS protocol, we found no significant change in odds of receiving IV acetaminophen OR 1.31 (95% CI 0.450, 3.76, p = 0.613) or IV ketorolac OR 1.65 (95% CI 0.804, 3.41, p = 0.172) after ERAS protocol implementation. We found a significant reduction in PACU opioid use of -9.68 Morphine Milligram Equivalents (MME) (95% CI -17.1, -2.31, p = 0.010) but no significant change in PACU initial pain score, PACU LOS and hospital LOS. CONCLUSIONS: We examined intraoperative practice pattern changes by anesthesiologists in response to ERAS protocol implementation for laparoscopic donor nephrectomies. Our results suggest that there was a variable uptake of recommendations from ERAS protocol. While ERAS protocols are often studied as a bundle of best practice recommendations, understanding the variability of provider adherence represents an important future research direction for the ERAS initiative.

Implementation and Results of a Percutaneous Renal Allograft Biopsy Protocol to Reduce Complication Rate.

Percutaneous renal transplant biopsy (PRTB) is the gold standard for evaluating allograft rejection after renal transplant. Hemorrhage is the predominant complication. We describe the implementation of a standardized protocol for PRTB at a single institution, with the aim of reducing bleeding complications. Utilizing the plan-do-study-act model for quality improvement, we created and deployed a protocol centered on controlling patient's hypertension, platelet function, and anticoagulation status. The 4-year study encompassed a total of 880 PRTBs, before and after implementation of the protocol. Total complication rate, which was 5.8% in the 2 years leading up to implementation of the protocol, was reduced to 2.9% after the protocol was introduced (P = .04). A standardized approach to PRTB can potentially lower complication rates; we present a framework for implementating a quality improvement protocol at other institutions.

Evolution of laparoscopic donor nephrectomy technique and outcomes: a single-center experience with more than 1300 cases.

OBJECTIVE: To describe and illustrate the evolution of surgical technique, emphasizing technical modifications of laparoscopic donor nephrectomy (LDN) and the impact on complication outcome. METHODS: This is a retrospective observational study of prospectively collected data on all consecutive purely LDN surgeries performed at a tertiary academic medical center (n = 1325), performed between March 2000 and October 2013. RESULTS: Over time, LDN was performed on older patients, changing from a mean of 35.7 years in 2000 to 41.2 years in 2013 (P <.001). Additionally, mean blood loss decreased from 75 mL in 2000 to 21.6 mL in 2013 (P <.001). However, body mass index, operative time, and length of stay remained similar. Overall, there were 105 (7.9%) complications: Clavien grade 1 (n = 81, 6.1%) and grade 2 or higher (n = 23, 1.8%). Procedure duration, blood loss, surgeon, year of procedure, laterality, body mass index, age, and gender did not significantly predict complications. There was no significant difference for Clavien complication rates between the early learning period (first 150 cases) and the rest of the series. CONCLUSION: With continual refinement with LDN techniques based on intraoperative observations and technological advances, complication rates remain consistently low, despite increasing donor age.

Transplantation: pulsatile perfusion-time for a prospective trial.

Pulsatile perfusion is increasingly being used to preserve kidneys harvested from non-standard-criteria donors. Indeed, retrospective analyses have shown that machine preservation is associated with reduced rates of delayed graft function. However, well-designed prospective clinical trials are needed to evaluate its impact on organ discard, rejection, long-term graft function, and cost.

Determinants of laparoscopic donor nephrectomy outcomes.

BACKGROUND: Pure laparoscopic donor nephrectomy (LDN) is a unique intervention because it carries known risks and complications, yet carries no direct benefit to the donor. Therefore, it is critical to continually examine and improve quality of care. OBJECTIVE: To identify factors affecting LDN outcomes and complications. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: A retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data for 1204 consecutive LDNs performed from March 2000 through August 2012. INTERVENTION: LDN performed at an academic training center. OUTCOME MEASUREMENTS AND STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Using multivariable regression, we assessed the effect of age, sex, body mass index (BMI), laterality, and vascular variation on operative time, estimated blood loss (EBL), complications, and length of stay. RESULTS AND LIMITATIONS: The following variables were associated with longer operative time (data given as parameter estimate plus or minus the standard error): female sex (9.09 ± 2.43; p<0.001), higher BMI (1.03 ± 0.32; p=0.001), two (7.87 ± 2.70; p=0.004) and three or more (22.45 ± 7.13; p=0.002) versus one renal artery, and early renal arterial branching (5.67 ± 2.82; p=0.045), while early renal arterial branching (7.81 ± 3.85; p=0.043) was associated with higher EBL. Overall, 8.2% of LDNs experienced complications, and by modified Clavien classification, 74 (5.9%) were grade 1, 13 (1.1%) were grade 2a, 10 (0.8%) were grade 2b, and 2 (0.2%) were grade 2c. There were no grade 3 or 4 complications. Three or more renal arteries (odds ratio [OR]: 2.74; 95% CI, 1.05-7.16; p=0.04) and late renal vein confluence (OR: 2.42; 95% CI, 1.50-3.91; p=0.0003) were associated with more complications. Finally, we did not find an association of the independent variables with length of stay. A limitation is that warm ischemia time was not assessed. CONCLUSIONS: In our series, renal vascular variation prolonged operative time and was associated with more complications. While complicated donor anatomy is not a contraindication of LDN, surgical decision-making should take into consideration these results.