Decisions You Need to Make About Your Transplant Choice
October 17, 2019 @ 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm EDT
Presented by Dr. Keith Melancon, Director of the George Washington Transplant Institute
Dr. Melancon will touch on the following three key points:
- Accepting high risk donors
- Understanding transplant wait time
- What makes a great transplant recipient
View the Recording:
About the Presenter:
Dr. Melancon is currently the Director of the George Washington Transplant Institute and the Medical Director of The Ron and Joy Paul Kidney Center at George Washington University Medical School. Dr. Melancon is a Professor of Surgery whose specialties include kidney, pancreas and liver transplantation as well as laparoscopic kidney donor nephrectomy. His research interests have centered upon increasing access to health care for minority patients, particularly in the field of organ transplantation. Dr. Melancon has spent his career trying to improve outcomes for the hardest to transplant patients and therefore has been an advocate for ABO incompatible organ transplantation, paired kidney exchanges, and immune system desensitization strategies. Recently Dr. Melancon and his team were the first ever to perform a fully ABO incompatible deceased donor kidney transplantation as well as a fully ABO incompatible living donor kidney transplantation in an individual with HIV infection. Dr. Melancon hopes that with novel immunosuppression protocols that organ transplants will begin to last for the life time of the patient and that true transplant tolerance can be achieved in the near future.