If you’re a kidney transplant patient, your chances of living a longer life are improving.
That’s according to a recent review published in The New England Journal of Medicine. It showed that the five-year survival rate of transplant recipients who received a deceased donor kidney increased from 66 percent in 1996-1999 to 78 percent in 2012-2015. And for patients who received a kidney from a living donor, that number improved from 79.5 percent to 88 percent.
What’s behind the better outcomes?
“Significant advances have been made specifically in the detection of antibodies toward kidney transplants. The testing has become much more sensitive, and so now we’re able to avoid transplants that may lead to an early rejection,” says Dr. Carrie Schinstock, medical director of the Kidney Transplant Program at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
“There have also been significant advances in different immunosuppression and advances in our ability to detect viruses that can be detrimental to kidney transplant patients.”