GUIDES FOR people thinking of donating a kidney have been published, as the number of kidney transplants this year looks set to be the highest on record.
The guides, contained in video and supporting booklets, have been compiled by the National Renal Transplantation team at Beaumont Hospital Dublin.
Kidney Transplantation – a Guide for Patients explains the risks and benefits from a patient’s perspective while Thinking About Donating a Kidney? provides information for potential living donors on the various procedures involved in donation.
Prof Peter Conlon, Clinical Director of Nephrology, Urology and Transplantation at Beaumont said the guides were timely given the increase in renal transplants this year. In the first six months of 2011, 111 kidney transplants were completed, compared with 121 for the whole of last year.
Prof Conlon said the numbers for 2011 could well exceed the previous record of 172 kidney transplants in 2009. There appeared to be three main reasons for this year’s performance.
“The living-related donor programme is gaining momentum. Two more renal transplant surgeons have recently been trained in laparoscopic, or keyhole, techniques and up to 70 potential donors are likely to be evaluated under the LRD programme this year,” said Prof Conlon.
“It is likely Beaumont will complete in the order of 30 living donor transplants this year, which would be a significant increase on last year’s figure of 23,” he said.
There was also a growing public awareness of the benefits of donation and increased participation by acute hospitals throughout Ireland in the process of helping to identify and support potential donor families on the deaths of their loved ones, he said.
The new informational videos and booklets can be viewed at beaumont.ie/kidneyinfo.ie.
The videos are also available on DVD and, along with the books, can be obtained from the Nephrology and Renal Transplant Medicine Department at Beaumont Hospital and from the Irish Kidney Association, which has financially supported their production.
