Nine hospitals from across Spain are involved in the kidney transplant chain

LA FE: One of the hospitals involved in the cross kidney transplants.

ALICANTE General Hospital and Valencia’s La Fe have taken part in three cross kidney transplants in the last two weeks. The chain of transplants has involved a total of nine hospitals throughout Spain. 

La Fe Hospital has participated in two of the three transplants and Alicante General Hospital participated in one.

This donation model arises when a patient requires a kidney transplant and a family donor is incompatible with that patient, but is suitable to donate the kidney to another patient who needs a transplant in another hospital in Spain. In that case, a donor exchange between two partners occurs.

This situation has occurred three times between the Alicante and Valencia hospitals in the last few weeks.

In each case extraction of the kidney from the transplant donors was carried out simultaneously in all the hospitals involved in each case. All donors and recipients have now been discharged from hospital and are reported to be recovering well.

The number of kidney donations from living donors is growing in Spain, particularly when there is a shortage of organs. 

Kidney transplantation is the best option for patients with advanced chronic renal failure, a disease that currently affects about 5,000 patients in the Valencia Region, and around 40,000 in Spain.

“Living donation is a technique that is becoming increasingly more important in kidney transplantation,” said Doctor Juan Galan, Transplant Co-ordinator at Hospital La Fe: “Usually, if the patient is compliant as a candidate to be a donor, it is removed and implanted in the receiver at the same time. However, “in some cases, patient and family are incompatible but the donor could be compatible with another donor whose family is also not compatible and is in the same situation and we can make the crossing of donors.”

In Valencia, since 1979, 5,411 kidney transplants have been carried out, of which 156 were from living donors. During 2015, until November, there have been 242 kidney transplants, with 22 living donors.

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