Closer is better for transplants

Doctors have known for years that speed is crucial to successful organ transplants.

Now a study of transplanted kidneys has confirmed that organs shipped to another location do not fare as well as those transplanted locally - except when the donor and recipient are perfectly matched.

"The shipment of kidneys was associated with a 17 per cent increase in the risk of allograft [organ] failure in the first year after transplantation," said the study leader, Dr Kevin Mange of the University of Pennsylvania.

Their finding was based on an analysis of 5446 cases in which one kidney was transplanted locally and the other shipped elsewhere.

The researchers also found that after a year, transplant recipients faced the same risk of rejection regardless of whether the organ was shipped to them.

- REUTERS

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