Patients of UCLA’s Kidney and Pancreas Transplant program have the highest odds of survival over a three-year period in the nation, according to a survey released last week.
Three years after surgery, 92 percent of patients treated by UCLA’s program still have functioning organs, called graft survival, according to data from the Scientific Registry for Transplant Recipients.
The registry, which serves the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, also examines graft survival rates at one year and one month.
“The short term markers indicate how the operation went, but the key lies in changing people’s lives over the long term, and the two go hand in hand,” said Dr. Gabriel Danovitch, medical director of the program.
Kidney transplant operations have evolved to being “virtually risk-free,” said Dr. Alan Wilkinson, director of the program.
The operation’s risks lie in the side effects of medications administered to prevent organ rejection.
Cardiovascular issues and diabetes are other possible postoperation complications, Wilkinson added.
“While any operation is difficult the first time around, kidney transplants are relatively straightforward for skilled surgeons,” said Dr. Jean deKernion, chair of the department of urology.
The program’s five nephrologists and five urologists perform around 300 transplants per year. Nephrologists are doctors who specialize in the kidneys, and urologists are kidney surgeons. At UCLA, more than a third of transplants come from live donors, and the remainder are cadaveric.
UCLA’s program was compared to other large programs that perform 80 or more transplants a year. The difference between the top centers’ rankings is minimal, and the UCLA program’s sole motivation is to provide the best care to patients, Danovitch said.
The Kidney and Pancreas Transplant program’s top rank is bolstered by the urological treatment undertaken at the center, which takes on more high-risk patients.
“It is important to note that, as a program, we are considered quite radical for the extent to which we have transplanted very complicated patients and those at higher risk of rejection and still obtained these results,” said Wilkinson.
Despite the high rankings and success rates, a major roadblock for kidney transplant programs and patients remains: The demand for kidneys far exceeds availability.
Organ transplants can’t work without organ donations, no matter how sophisticated the technology or how attentive the surgeons and doctors, Danovitch said.
“Right now, tens of thousands of people are on waiting lists for transplants,” deKernion said. “Some will never get them, and many will have to wait years.”