| News From Transplant Week of Sept 29, 2002 / Vol. 3 No. 39 |
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Survey: Outcomes Often Poor for UK Patients Who Travel to Buy Organs |
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At least 29 patients awaiting kidney transplants in the United Kingdom have travelled to other countries where they could buy kidneys, but the operations resulted in far more deaths and a higher rate of loss of the transplanted organ than normal, according to a report in the British Medical Journal. Kidney specialists at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham said they collected on what was referred to as "transplant tourism" from half of the renal units in the UK, and found that of the 29 patients who went outside the country against medical advice, 12 died as a result of the transplant, and 5 more lost their transplanted organ. "Even the most desperate dialysis patient would probably not knowingly undergo a transplant associated with a one in three chance of dying and 50 per cent chance of graft loss," wrote Andrew Ready, clinical director of the renal transplant unit at Queen Elizabeth Hospital. In contrast, patients receiving a kidney transplant from a living donor in the United States have approximately a one in 20 chance of graft loss by the end of the first year, and less than a one in 40 chance of dying. The sale of organs is banned in the United Kingdom as it is in the United States. Other
sources: British Medical Journal, the Independent
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