What is meant by Highly Sensitized Patient?

From Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

For one of every three kidney failure patients, a transplant is not possible even if a potential donor's tissue and blood types otherwise match perfectly. This is because they have a highly sensitized immune system that would attack the transplanted kidney or pancreas.

If a person has become highly sensitized, his or her immune system is hyper-vigilant to invaders -- even when the invader is a life-saving transplanted organ.

From Montefiore Medical Center

Q. What does "SENSITIZED" mean?
A. Approximately 30% of the 84,000 patients who are waiting for a deceased-donor kidney are considered "sensitized", and those with exceptionally high antibody levels are considered especially poor candidates for transplantation. People who have this type of antibody typically develop them through a previous exposure to foreign tissue, such as during pregnancy, prior transplant and blood transfusion. In fact, each year only 6.5% of highly sensitized patients receive a transplant. Sensitized patients wait 3-4 times longer than unsensitized patients for a compatible deceased-donor.

Blood Group Incompatible Transplantation

If the blood groups of the donor and recipient don't match, it is possible to transplant patients in this situation using specialized techniques:

• The procedure starts with simple blood tests to assess blood group and antibody levels. 
• A drug called Rituximab to help remove antibody-producing cells. 
• Antibodies from the blood are removed by a procedure similar to dialysis, called immunoadsorption. 
• Once the antibody levels are lowered sufficiently, transplantation can take place. 
• After transplantation, the physicians continue to monitor the antibodies, but further treatments are usually not necessary.

Entities Supported in OrganTx

• Patients, Living Donors, Transplants, Lab Tests, Deceased Donors, Serologies, Encounters, Patient Status
• Dialysis Units, Referring Physicians
• Insurance Companies, Insurance History

Organ donation and kidney transplant list in Turkey

From Today's Zaman, Turkey.
The kidney transplant list is rather long for a country of 77 million.

In 2008, the country with the highest donation rate was Spain (38.2). Western countries usually have higher donation figures with the US registering 29.6 donors per million in 2008, followed by France (25.7), Italy (25.4), Germany (18.9) and England (16.2). Israel’s donation figure was 13.2, while it was 10.5 in Greece and 6.0 in Bulgaria. The only nation that did more poorly than Turkey was Romania, where the number of donors per million was 2.0.
...
Currently there are 20,000 people listed on the Health Ministry’s kidney transplant list, about 2,000 patients waiting on the liver transplant list and about 1,000 waiting for new hearts.

NYT reviews DonateLife app

"DonateLives is essentially a shortcut to Web pages for organ donation registration. You could always seek them out on your desktop computer, but it would be more challenging. "

Signing Up as an Organ Donor, the Easy Way

Gov. Schwarzenegger Signs SB 1395 Establishing Kidney Donor Registry

Legislation Makes it Easier for Californians to Affirm Their Organ Donor Status, Creates Nation’s First Kidney Donor Registry

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today issued the following statement after signing SB 1395 by Senator Elaine Alquist (D-Santa Clara):

“Organ donors are true heroes and I’m proud to sign SB 1395. This legislation will help save the lives of those waiting for a transplant by making it easier for Californians to affirm their preferred organ donor status. It will also create the nation’s first donor registry for kidney transplants to help connect those in need of a transplant with those willing to give. I applaud all of those who were involved in passing this life-saving legislation.”

On March 19, Governor Schwarzenegger and Senator Elaine Alquist (D-Santa Clara) announced the introduction of SB 1395. The legislation will give Californians a choice between registering to be an organ donor or considering at another time via a mandated question through the Department of Motor Vehicles driver license application/renewal or state ID card application process. The legislation also creates the nation’s first living donor registry for kidney transplants to better connect those who want to donate with those in need of a transplant.