| Check Out the New Features of AAKP
My Health™ |  |
AAKP My Health™ now offers new features to help users take charge of their health care. Users can now:
· Receive appointment reminders by email · Print emergency contact cards
AAKP My Health™ is a free, unique section of the AAKP website, www.aakp.org, that provides you with online tools to be the leader in your health care. With AAKP My Health™, you can:
· Track your lab results
· Log your medications
· List your healthcare team members
· Prepare information for doctor visits
· Test your kidney knowledge
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Kidney Transplant Numbers Increase for Elderly Patients | |
 Elderly patients with kidney failure get kidney transplants more often than they did a decade ago, according to a study appearing in the Clinical Journal of the American Society Nephrology. The results suggest that the chances of receiving a kidney transplant are better than ever for an older patient who needs one.
Researchers examined whether elderly patients with kidney failure have better or worse access to transplants now than they did in the past. The study included patients with kidney failure in the United States aged 60 to 75 years listed in the United States Renal Data System between 1995 and 2006. The study revealed that elderly patients rarely receive a transplant, but they were twice as likely to get one in 2006 as in 1995. In 2006, they had a 7.3 percent likelihood of getting a transplant within three years of their first treatment for kidney failure. Elderly patients now benefit from greater access to organs from living donors and older deceased donors compared to a decade ago. They also die less frequently while waiting for a kidney than they did in the past. |
| Incentives Fail to Improve Kidney Donation Rates | | Initiatives to increase organ donations by offering reimbursements to living kidney donors have failed to increase kidney donation rates in the states that have implemented them. Researchers compared the 15 states that have enacted policies with the 30 states that have not. States without living kidney donor information were excluded. The analysis revealed that states with reimbursement policies have not significantly increased living kidney donation. Rates of living kidney donation increased in all states in recent years, but states with reimbursement policies had a significantly lower rate of increase. Policymakers and advocates put enormous time and effort into getting legislation introduced and enacted. The research highlights the need to be sure that policies are implemented in a way that achieves the desired goals. |
| Getting Married May Also Get You a Kidney |  People who get married appear to enjoy better health overall - and may even be more likely to receive a kidney transplant when they need one, a new study reports.
Researchers found that people with kidney failure who were married or divorced (or separated) were more than 50 percent as likely to be placed on a waitlist for a new kidney as never-married people. Those who were married were also 28 percent more likely to receive the organ, relative to single people on the waitlist. Many people on the waitlist for a new kidney are on dialysis, which means they have to follow a complicated diet and medication regimen, and keep up with many appointments. A partner can help with all of that, keeping them healthier overall. That, in turn, makes them eligible to join the waitlist, and when an organ becomes available, they're in good enough physical shape to receive it. With a partner to help, you remain as healthy as possible on dialysis. |
| Low Income Individuals are Donating Fewer Kidneys | | Research shows that people with low incomes are more likely to develop kidney failure and less likely to receive a living donor kidney transplant than people of other socioeconomic classes. Because fewer individuals in the U.S. are donating kidneys, researchers examined trends in kidney donation based on income. Data revealed that rates of living donation are inversely related to median household income. Rates of living kidney donation declined in all income groups over time, but the largest decline was seen in the lowest income group, where living donations decreased by 5 per million population. The rates decreased by 1 donor per million population in the two highest income groups. The results can help to identify potential barriers to living kidney donation and minimize these barriers so that everyone who wishes to donate a kidney to a loved one has the opportunity to do so. |
| Hospital Increases Transplants with Kidney Paired Donation | |
 The Texas Transplant Institute kidney transplant program at Methodist Specialty and Transplant Hospital (MSTH) has increased access to live donor kidney transplantation by 34 percent with kidney paired donation (KPD), according to results published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The paired donor program identifies living donors who wish to donate their kidney but cannot because of blood or tissue incompatibility with the recipient. Incompatible pairs are matched with other incompatible pairs, and the donors are exchanged, resulting in compatible transplant combinations.
In the 26 month study, the KPD transplant program reported 83 exchange transplants, including 22 two-way and 13 three-way exchanges with only a single transplant rejection episode and no transplant rejection losses. In the last 12 months of the study, the team performed a total of 180 live donor kidney transplants, of which 61 were KPD transplants. The article notes that if this productivity with KPD transplantation could be replicated on a national level it would potentially result in 2,000 additional live donor kidney transplants annually and reduce the number of patients on the waiting list. |
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