"Many people with chronic kidney disease are
hesitant to discuss living donation with family or friends," says
Debbie Morgan, L.C.S.W., Director of the Renal and Pancreas
Transplant Division. "Even people surrounded by loving, caring
families find this a difficult subject to raise." At the
Renal and Pancreas Transplant Division, living donation is
simply a part of the comprehensive transplant education process.
Transplant candidates are encouraged to bring immediate and
extended family members to educational sessions where living
donation is presented as the best treatment option for those
patients who have willing donors. "Individuals who attend
can take the information, think about it as long as they
need until they feel comfortable," Ms. Morgan explains. In
addition, the center provides written materials about the
benefits of living donor transplantation that candidates
can share with family and friends.
New Jersey's first Living Donor Institute, developed at the
Saint Barnabas Health Care System Renal and Pancreas Transplant
Division, offers a comprehensive range of services for
living donation that includes altruistic living donation
and a paired exchange program. An altruistic donor offers
one of his/her kidneys to a stranger in need of a transplant.
The Mid-Atlantic Paired Exchange Program (MAPEP)
involves the matching and exchange of kidneys between donor/recipient
pairs that are not compatible with each other.
This allows recipients who have a willing
living donor that does not match them, an opportunity to
still receive a living donor transplant through the paired
exchange process. MAPEP is overseen by the NJ Organ and
Tissue Sharing Network and offers a database of registered
pairs, expediting the matching process among hundreds of
individuals.
The Renal and Pancreas Transplant Division provides minimally
invasive laparoscopic surgery for most living donors.
Laparoscopic surgery involves the use of a camera and
several small incisions to perform an operation that
once required a large incision. The result is less pain
and scarring, as well as a quicker recovery. Laparoscopic
surgery is the preferred method of kidney removal. Virtually
100 percent of donor surgeries performed at Saint Barnabas
Health Care System over the past few years used this
technique.
The Transplant Division coordinates the evaluation and testing
of living donors who reside out-of-state or even out of the
country. Potential donors may have the preliminary medical
screening completed at their local health care facility and
travel to New Jersey at the time of surgery. The Transplant
Division will also facilitate the documentation necessary
for kidney donors who plan travel to the United States from
other countries.
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| Saint Barnabas Medical Center Transplant
Physician Team (seated left to right) Shamkant Mulgaonkar,
M.D., Chief, Renal and Pancreas Transplant Division,
Saint Barnabas Health Care System; and nephrologists
Martin Jacobs, M.D.; Luigi V. Bonomini, M.D., Ph.D.;
(standing left to right) Nita K. Shah, M.D.; Robert D.
Zenenberg, D.O.; Francis L. Weng, M.D.; Mir M. Ahmad,
M.D.; Anup M. Patel, M.D. |
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