Mismatched kidney transplants accounted for nearly 22 percent of the kidney transplant procedures conducted in 2014, a drastic increase from 0.3 percent when they were first introduced in the country in 2007, according to a research team led by professors Yang Cheol-woo and Jung Byung-ha at the organ transplant center in Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital. (Image: Kobiz Media)
SEOUL, May 25 (Korea Bizwire) — New research shows the number of mismatched kidney transplants among married couples is now on the rise after transplants between mismatched donors and recipients were first allowed in 2007 in South Korea.
Mismatched kidney transplants accounted for nearly 22 percent of the kidney transplant procedures conducted in 2014, a drastic increase from 0.3 percent when they were first introduced in the country in 2007, according to a research team led by professors Yang Cheol-woo and Jung Byung-ha at the organ transplant center in Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital.
The research team revealed their findings yesterday after analyzing over 3,000 cases gathered from the database of kidney transplant patients and statistics provided by the Korean Network for Organ Sharing (KONOS) from 2007 to 2014.
The number of married couples who shared a kidney with each other more than doubled over the same period, accounting for over three in every ten mismatched kidney transplants in the country.
Among parents and children or between siblings, nine in ten kidney transplants were between matched donors and recipients.
“Mismatched kidney transplantation between married couples have become common. It should be looked at positively that there are more opportunities to help save partners,” Yang said.
The findings from the study were published in the latest edition of international academic journal PLOS ONE.
M.H.Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
