Successful kidney transplantation despite tissue incompatibility
Donor kidneys can be successfully transplanted even if there is strong tissue incompatibility between donor and recipient. An interdisciplinary working group headed by Dr Christian Morath, senior consultant at the Department of Nephrology at Heidelberg University Hospital (Medical Director: Professor Dr Martin Zeier) and Professor Dr Caner Suesal, head of antibody laboratory in the Department of Transplantation Immunology, showed in a study of 34 sensitised high-risk patients that the success rate in these patients was not different from the success rate of patients with a low immunological risk. After one year, around 95 percent of the transplants were still functioning. The researchers in Heidelberg developed a sophisticated therapy concept especially for this group of high-risk patients. This makes the transplantation centre in Heidelberg the leading centre in Germany in this area. The results of the study were published in the prestigious journal 'Transplantation'...