Organ transplant
hideOrgan transplant is the moving of an organ from one body to another (or from a donor site on the patient's own body), for the purpose of replacing the recipient's damaged or failing organ with a working one from the donor site. Organ donors can be living or deceased (previously referred to as cadaveric).
Organs that can be transplanted are the heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas, penis, and intestine. Tissues include bones, tendons, cornea, heart valves, veins, arms, and skin.
Transplantation medicine is one of the most challenging and complex areas of modern medicine. Some of the key areas for medical management are the problems of organ rejection - where the body has an immune response to an organ which causes failure of the transplant and of ensuring that the organ can be kept in a functioning state while it is transplanted from one body to another. This is a very time sensitive process.
In most countries there is a shortage of suitable organs for transplantation. Countries often have formal systems in place to manage the allocation and reduce the risk of rejection. Some countries are associated within international organisations like Eurotransplant in order to increase the supply of appropriate donor organs and the organ recipients.
Transplantation also raises a number of bioethical issues, including the definition of death, when and how consent should be given for an organ to be transplanted and payment for organs for transplantation.
For more information about Organ transplant, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
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News tagged with organ transplantation
Switching immunosuppressants reduces cancer risk in kidney
Nov 02, 2009 |
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Switching to a newer type of immunosuppressant drug may reduce the high rate of skin cancer after kidney transplantation, according to research being presented at the American Society of Nephrology's 42nd Annual Meeting and ...
New strategy for inhibiting virus replication
Aug 14, 2009 |
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Viruses need living cells for replication and production of virus progeny. Thus far, antiviral therapy primarily targets viral factors but often induces therapy resistance. New improved therapies attempt to targets cellular ...
Induced pluripotent stem cells repair heart, study shows
Jul 20, 2009 |
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In a proof-of-concept study, Mayo Clinic investigators have demonstrated that induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells can be used to treat heart disease. iPS cells are stem cells converted from adult cells. In this study, the ...
Microscopic 'beads' could help create 'designer' immune cells that ignore transplanted organs
Jul 06, 2009 |
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The future of organ transplantation could include microscopic beads that create "designer" immune cells to help patients tolerate their new organ, Medical College of Georgia researchers say.
A major breakthrough in generating safer, therapeutic stem cells from adult cells
Apr 23, 2009 |
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The new technique solves one of the most challenging safety hurdles associated with personalized stem cell-based medicine because for the first time it enables scientists to make stem cells in the laboratory from adult cells ...
Majority of doctors skeptical of organ transplantation practices in China
Apr 23, 2009 |
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The globalization of health care and the growth of "transplant tourism" (traveling abroad to purchase donor organs and undergo organ transplantation) have outpaced the implementation of internationally accepted ethical standards ...
Embryonic stem cells might help reduce transplantation rejection
Sep 15, 2008 |
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Researchers have shown that immune-defense cells influenced by embryonic stem cell-derived cells can help prevent the rejection of hearts transplanted into mice, all without the use of immunosuppressive drugs.
