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Organ transplant
Patient Information
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Transplant Center - What's New
September 25, 2006
Issue No. 2
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What is MELD?
In February of 2002, the MELD (Model for End-Stage Liver Disease) scoring system was nationally implemented, and now all liver transplant centers use this system for ranking patients waiting for a liver transplant.
What constitutes the MELD score?
Three routine labs tests are used: Bilirubin, INR, and Creatinine. These results are used to rank a patient from a low score of 6 to a high score of 40. The higher the number the more gravely ill the patient and the higher their placement on the list. Patients who present with existing hepatocellular carcinoma are assigned additional points based on predetermined criteria unless the lesions exceed the dimensions specified by UNOS. This makes screening for HCC vitally important in patients presenting with liver problems.
The patient’s MELD score will also determine how frequently these labs will be updated in order to monitor their liver disease. This monitoring is usually done by the patient’s primary physician within their local community and faxed to the transplant clinic where the nurse coordinator carefully tracks and reports results to the surgeons. The coordinators also adjust the patients’ ranking on the waiting list as warranted by these lab values.
Radio frequency ablation
Minimally invasive tissue ablation is an attractive tool for some liver cancer patients awaiting liver transplantation. Local treatment preserves uninvolved liver parenchyma and has potentially fewer systemic complications and side-effects than treatment options like chemotherapy. RFA may be better than other ablative techniques because it is fast, easy, predictable, safe, and relatively cheap.
Recent advances in techniques have resulted in larger volumes of tissue ablated, which may translate into the ability to treat larger lesions with relatively low complications rates and little collateral damage.
At the UK transplant center, we routinely perform RFA procedures with excellent results for our patients awaiting liver transplantation. Patients referred by their doctors to UK can have a rapid in-hospital evaluation performed to determine the best course of treatment for their liver disease when necessary. For questions concerning RFA, rapid evaluations, etc., call the center at 859-323-4661 or 1-888-806-3212. Our surgeons can also always be reached through UK•MDs at 1-800-888-5533.
Living donor kidney program
UK HealthCare has an active living kidney donor program. Living donors are usually a sibling, parent, spouse, close relative or friend of the recipient. Living donor kidney procedures have provided a boost to kidney transplant surgery in recent years. Some donors come forth for truly altruistic reasons, donating organs to strangers. A living donor organ has a longer life span and being able to schedule surgery in advance means the recipient and donor can be in the best health possible.
While standard open donor nephrectomies are still performed, the UK HealthCare surgeons also perform laparascopic hand-assisted donor nephrectomies. As with other types of laparscopic surgeries, incisions are smaller and recovery times and post operative pain are greatly diminished allowing the donors to return to their daily activities in a short period of time.
UK HealthCare has a nurse coordinator who specializes in and is dedicated solely to working with living donors and recipients. Our Living Donor Coordinator can be reached at 1-866-474-6544 toll free or in the Lexington area at 859-323-6544.
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