There is a tremendous need for liver transplants that isn’t being met through cadaveric donation. UNOS figures show more than 16,000 people await liver transplants, yet only about 5,000 transplants actually occur. There is an enormous gap.
Enter living donation. The special characteristics of the human liver make living donation unique. While each of us has only one liver, it is a large, segmented organ that regenerates, allowing a surgeon to remove a portion yet have both the recipient and donor with complete livers within a matter of a few months.
Living donation has important advantages over cadaveric donation:
- The waiting time for a transplant recipient can be significantly reduced.
- The procedure can be scheduled at a time convenient for both the donor and recipient.
- The quality of the donated organ tends to be superior to cadaveric organs.
- The time between procurement of the organ and transplantation to the recipient is minimized
Thanks to livingdonorsonline.org for this information.
The need for kidney donation is the highest ever nowadays. UNOS reports as of January 2006 there are nearly 65,000 people waiting for a kidney transplant.
Second, kidney transplantation is very successful and has been shown to be less costly than dialysis over the long run. And, finally, living kidney donation is emerging as the preferred means of donation because:
- The waiting time for a transplant recipient can be significantly reduced.
- The procedure can be scheduled at a time convenient for both the donor and recipient.
- The quality of the donated organ tends to be superior to organs from deceased donors.
- The time between procurement of the organ and transplantation to the recipient is minimized.
All of these factors have yielded positive results for recipients. There is less rejection and lower doses of anti-rejection drugs. The transplanted kidney, or “graft,” has better odds of surviving if from a living donor, as show in the following UNOS data for kidney transplants in the U.S from 1995 to 2002.
Thanks to living donors online for this information.
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Living Donors make up almost 50% of all the donations in the U.S. Even though the term - “living donors” sounds simple, I would like to go little more in detail about what it means and how it means to you.
You and I can donate some of our organs and still remain healthy and live a long life. Not only we live healthy and long, we also help another person live long by donating our organ/tissue.
The following organs can be donated by living donors - kidney, liver, lung, intestine, pancreas.
I will go more in to details in the following days to come. If you have any questions meanwhile, please don’t hesitate to write a comment and I will surely respond to them.
The good old saying holds good for organ donation. Reducing the risk for needing a transplant is a better way to reduce the demand for organ donation. So here are some short tips on how to maintain healthy organs and tissue through out your life.
- Stay heart healthy
- nutritious and well-balanced food is a key
- eat foods that are low in saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol and use less salt.
- eat a lot of fruits, vegetables and whole grains
- Exercise and stay fit
- Visit the doctor and test regularly