Liver-Kidney Transplant Reduces Organ Rejection, Boosts Recovery

New UCLA research shows that combined liver-kidney transplants appear to benefit patients with diseases in both organs, including patients with potentially reversible kidney failure who have been receiving dialysis for longer than two months. The Archives of Surgery will publish the findings in its August issue.

“Our study indicates that a combined liver-kidney transplant is the procedure of choice for patients suffering end-stage disease in both the liver and kidneys,” explained Dr. Ronald Busuttil, professor and chair of surgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. “For the first time, it also appears that a dual-organ transplant can help liver-disease patients with temporary kidney dysfunction.”

A review of organ survival rates in combination-transplant patients showed that 70 percent of the transplanted livers and 76 percent of the transplanted kidneys survived after one year. After three years, 65 percent of the livers and 72 percent of the kidneys survived; and after five years, 65 percent of the livers and 70 percent of the kidneys survived.

Among those who underwent only kidney transplants, 23 percent of the kidneys were rejected by the recipient's body after one year, compared with 14 percent of those who had liver-kidney transplants.