Study: Survival Rate for Liver and Kidney Transplant "Acceptable"

French researchers report that the survival rate for patients who need a combined liver and kidney transplant, performed to treat chronic multiple organ failure, is not dramatically different from that of patients simply having a kidney transplant.

The researchers, in a study of 45 patients who underwent a combined liver and kidney transplant from the same donor, said the median survival rate for the patients was 82 percent at the end of three years.

This compares to an 88 percent survival rate for patients in the U.S. at the end of three years who have received a kidney transplant from a cadaver donor.

The researchers reported in the American Journal of Transplantation that only two of the 45 patients (4.2 percent) who received the two organs developed acute rejection of the kidney graft, compared to almost one-third of 86 matched patients who underwent kidney transplantation alone.

They said that while seven of the 45 patients died within the first three months following their transplant, the main cause of death was severe infectious complications.

"In conclusion, the overall survival rate following combined liver kidney transplantation is acceptable, and liver kidney transplantation can be proposed to patients with kidney failure associated with liver dysfunction, primary oxaluria or amyloid neuropathy," the researchers concluded.

Other Sources: American Journal of Transplantation