Incompatibility between donor and recipient is the biggest barrier to successful kidney transplants. If the recipient’s immune system attacks the organ, then the transplant fails. A new transplant technique called desensitization is now changing all that, and its proving to be far more successful than traditional transplant methods. Desensitization works by filtering antibodies from the patient’s blood, which suppresses the immune response against the foreign kidney to prevent the rejection of transplanted kidneys. In an eight-year study from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 76 percent of desensitization patients were still alive after eight years compared to 44 percent of those who stayed on dialysis. The desensitization process even beat out compatible donations—only 63 percent of those receiving a compatible organ survived.
A new kidney transplant procedure makes all donors compatible
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