Transplantation

The Transplant Working Group has supervised a range of activities and achievements since its formation in 2003:

• Increased living-donor transplantation rates in NSW, leading to reduction of waiting lists for living-donor kidney transplants (see graphs below).
• Development of an information booklet to assist people considering participation in living-donor transplantation – plus its revision and reprint in 2010. This booklet is available for all renal units in Australasia: An Introduction to Kidney Donation by Live Donors
• Trial of a treatment protocol for transplantation in highly-sensitized patients, enabling them to have a kidney transplant and demonstrating good outcomes.
• Provision of information to NSW Health, informing them of the costs and the benefits of using the treatment protocol for highly-sensitized patients and for patients who are (blood-group) ABO-incompatible.
• Annual review of living-donor operations, and clinical governance report for the procedures.
• Review of new technologies.
• Development of nutrition guidelines for patients who have undergone kidney transplantation.
• Development of nutrition information resources for patients who have undergone kidney transplantation.
• Seeding grants to organisations for additional staff positions to facilitate increased kidney donation.
• Funding of the analysis of tissue-typing data, for the Australian Red-Cross Blood Service (ARCBS). This has led to the development of an algorithm enabling more efficient use of tissue-typing regimes and has assisted clinicians to better understand the implications of test results.