Studies show that kidneys from deceased donors who had acute injuries (defined as injuries with blood loss that affect the kidney, often sustained in car accidents) are frequently discarded, but could be transplanted with better results than transplants with delayed graft function. (Delayed graft function occurs when a transplanted kidney does not immediately start to function properly and may require some dialysis for a period of time.)
Yale Director of Applied Translational Research Dr. Chirag Parikh and colleagues tracked kidneys from 1,632 deceased donors and, as expected, found that kidneys from patients with acute kidney injury were discarded more often. The researchers said that patients who received injured kidneys were not at any higher risk for poor kidney function 6 months after their transplant.
In fact, kidney function six months after transplant was worse for patients with delayed graft function who received a kidney with no apparent injury, compared to those who received an injured kidney. One possible reason for the finding is that while still in their donors, the injured kidneys may have developed a mechanism to protect themselves from the effects of further injury.
