News & Events: Temperature Control Of Organ Donors

The Atlantic reports on the difficulties in the current climate of conducting donor-intervention research due to issues of informed consent, disagreements over what constitutes human subject research, and conflicting views of Institutional Review Boards (IRB) spread across multiple centers with patients putatively impacted by the research protocol. Moreover, doctors must test the experimental interventions designed to improve outcomes within the crucible of a short time window, given that a donated organ is suitable for transplantation for only a limited mumber of hours.  Doctors have a [...]

UCSF News reports on a just published study in the The New England Journal of Medicine in which mild hypothermia in deceased organ donors was found to significantly reduce delayed graft function in kidney transplant recipients compared with normal body temperature. The lead author of the study is Claus Niemann, MD, Professor of Anesthesia and Surgery at UCSF, and co-Director of the Ischemic Organ Injury Lab. The findings in the study could lead to an increase in the availability of kidneys for transplant. Mild hypothermia in deceased organ donors significantly reduces delayed graft [...]

UCSF News reports on the award of a $2 million grant by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to a team led by Claus Niemann, MD, Associate Professor in the UCSF Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care and co-Director of the Ischemic Organ Injury Lab to improve outcomes in organ donor transplantation.  The grant was awarded to Niemann and his collaborators including John Feiner, MD, as well as Ryutaro Hirose, MD, and John Roberts, MD, chief of the UCSF Transplant Service. Also collaborating on the project are the California Transplant Donor Network and Darren [...]