Friday, July 24, 2009

Kidney transplant lingo

Continuing with the theme of yesterday's Kidney Transplant post, here are some commonly-used Kidney Transplant Lingo & Acronyms:

CRT/DDKT: CRT = cadaveric renal transplant, which is starting to be replaced by DDKT (deceased donor kidney transplant)--I guess some people find using the term "cadaveric" too grisly.

ECD: expanded criteria donor: ECD kidneys are "suboptimal" kidneys defined as coming from a deceased donor more than 60 years of age, or more than 50 years of age with the following risk factors:
1. a donor history of high blood pressure.
2. stroke as the cause of death.
3. serum creatinine level over 1.5 mg/dL prior to donation.


DCD: donor after cardiac death. These are kidneys donated from deceased individuals who have severe, irreversible brain damage but do not actually meet the criteria for brain death. Typically, the donor patient's family will agree to withdraw life support, the patient will experience cardiac arrest, and the donor kidneys are then harvested for use.


LRRT: living related renal transplant

LURT: living unrelated renal transplant

SPK: simultaneous pancreas-kidney transplant

PAK: pancreas after kidney transplant

"Status 7": when a potential kidney transplant already on the waiting list is deemed temporarily unsuitable for transplant--e.g., if they have an active infection. Patients who are made "status 7" will still accrue time on the waiting list.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I always look forward to your blog entries and appreciate your hard work in keeping up with the updated information. I guess by "SPK" you meant"simultaneous pancreas Kidney Txp.

nathanhellman said...

Thanks for the heads up! I'll make the change.