The National Kidney Registry announced the successful completion of its 500th paired exchange transplant. The surgery was completed yesterday, just before midnight, at UCLA’s Ronald Regan Medical Center.
The NKR initiated its first exchange transplants just over four years ago, in February of 2008, at the Weill/Cornell Medical Center. Commenting on the past four years, Dr. Sandi Kapur, Chief of Transplant at Weill/Cornell said, “We have seen an amazing acceleration of paired exchange results over this four year period. Our program has been able to transplant an unprecedented 85% of the patients enrolled in the NKR program, including many highly sensitized patients.”
Dr. Jeffrey Veale, the Director of the UCLA Exchange Program and the Surgical Director of NKR, remarked, “These 500 transplants would not have been possible without the many altruistic donors who have given the gift of life to those suffering from kidney failure, along with the hard work and dedication of the transplant professionals at the 65 NKR Member Centers. We are thrilled that UCLA was able to successfully complete the 500th NKR facilitated transplant and look forward to quickly surpassing the 1,000 transplant milestone.”
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