More and more kidney transplants in Shanghai are being conducted
between patients and relatives.
Medical experts say these live transplants are more effective
and have a higher success rate than the traditional method where
organs from corpses are used.
Local hospitals in Shanghai have conducted 60 live kidney
transplants from January to June this year - since 1982, 200 such
transplants have been carried out.
"About two-thirds of our kidney transplants are between patients
and relatives so far this year. Last year more than 90 percent of
the kidneys transplanted were from corpses," said Dr Ling Jianyue
from Renji Hospital's organ transplant center, which has conducted
five live kidney transplants this year.
Dr Zhu Tongyu from Zhongshan Hospital said 60 percent of its
kidney transplants this year were live and added that patient
education and the introduction of minimally invasive surgery for
the donors have helped increase live transplants.
"Compared with organs from corpses, people receiving kidneys
from relatives suffer fewer rejection problems and survive longer,"
he said. "The 10-year level of survival for a patient who has
received a transplanted kidney from a corpse is 50 percent, while
for those who receive live transplants the level is 70 to 80
percent."
China has the second highest number of organ transplants in the
world, after the United States. There are some 10,000 transplants
conducted in the country every year and about half of these
transplants are kidneys.
However, there are 1.5 million Chinese suffering organ failure
and waiting for transplants.
"China has one million patients suffering uremia and this number
is increasing by 12 to 15 percent annually. About half of the
patients are suitable for transplants but the 5,000 transplants
carried out annually is far from meeting the demand," said Tang
Xiaoda, director of Shanghai Organ Transplant Association. "The
city has 4,000 new uremia patients every year. At present, about
8,000 patients depend completely on dialysis. Local hospitals only
do 500 to 600 transplants because of the shortage of organs."
Currently in China, only four percent of kidney transplants are
between patients and relatives, far below the worldwide level of 30
percent. In the United States, half of the organs are donated by
relatives while in Japan more than 90 percent come from
relatives.
To encourage live transplants, the Shanghai Roche
Pharmaceuticals and the Ministry of Health launched a project this
year providing live transplant recipients with 8.09 million yuan
(US$1.07 million) worth of anti-rejection medication.
(Shanghai Daily August 9, 2007)