Liver Transplant News and Research

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When a patient presents with end stage liver disease or liver failure he or she may be considered for a liver transplantation. The first step in this is often a rigorous assessment and being placed on a waiting list.

Findings reinforce need for standardization of living liver donor liver evaluation consent forms

New research reveals that 57% of liver transplant centers use living donor evaluation consent forms that include all the elements required by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and 78% of centers addressed two-third or more of the items recommended by the Organ Procurement and Transplant Network (OPTN).

14 Mar 2014

Patient with autistic behavior experiences improvements in mental health after liver transplant

A patient with a rare metabolic disease that causes liver failure and autistic behavior experienced significant improvements in both her physical and mental health after receiving a liver transplant, according to a new case report published in the American Journal of Transplantation.

12 Mar 2014

Novel treatment strategy during transplantation surgery could spare patients from rejection

Organ-transplant recipients often reject donated organs, but a new, two-pronged strategy developed by UC San Francisco researchers to specifically weaken immune responses that target transplanted tissue has shown promise in controlled experiments on mice.

11 Mar 2014

Metabolic profiling of liver cells suggests new treatments for cirrhosis patients

In a new study that could help doctors extend the lives of patients awaiting liver transplants, a Rice University-led team of researchers examined the metabolic breakdown that takes place in liver cells during late-stage cirrhosis and found clues that suggest new treatments to delay liver failure.

5 Mar 2014

Moving organ donors to stand-alone facility for retrieving organs is more efficient, lowers costs

Retrieving organs from brain-dead donors is logistically challenging and time consuming in hospitals. Multiple surgical teams often fly to a donor's hospital but frequently face delays in retrieving organs due to crowded operating-room schedules.

25 Feb 2014

Study highlights novel reprogramming method that offers new hope for treating liver failure

The power of regenerative medicine now allows scientists to transform skin cells into cells that closely resemble heart cells, pancreas cells and even neurons. However, a method to generate cells that are fully mature-a crucial prerequisite for life-saving therapies-has proven far more difficult.

24 Feb 2014

Viewpoints: Decoupling jobs and insurance; overblown fear: Medicaid willl take my house

Three blog posts and a column should probably suffice to cover the debate over Obamacare and work incentives, but I don't want to let the topic drop without first stepping back and talking about the actual health policy disagreement here.

14 Feb 2014

Sarcopenia increases risk of sepsis risk in patients undergoing live donor liver transplantation

Japanese researchers have determined that sarcopenia—a loss of skeletal muscle mass—increases risk of sepsis and mortality risk in patients undergoing live donor liver transplantation.

14 Feb 2014

Mallinckrodt's subsidiary to acquire all outstanding shares of Cadence Pharmaceuticals

Mallinckrodt plc, a leading global specialty pharmaceuticals company, and Cadence Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which a subsidiary of Mallinckrodt plc will commence a tender offer to acquire all outstanding shares of Cadence Pharmaceuticals, Inc. for $14.00 per share in cash or approximately $1.3 billion on a fully diluted basis, which represents a 32% premium to the trailing 30-trading-day volume weighted average price (VWAP) of $10.62 per share for Cadence Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

11 Feb 2014

Morbidity following liver transplant is highest among obese patients with diabetes

Researchers from New Zealand report that morbidity following liver transplant is highest among obese patients with diabetes, but these risk factors do not influence post-transplant survival.

24 Jan 2014

New drug combination proves effective in treatment of hepatitis C

Efforts to cure hepatitis C, the liver-damaging infectious disease that has for years killed more Americans than HIV/AIDS, are about to get simpler and more effective, according to new research at Johns Hopkins and elsewhere.

16 Jan 2014

Women are more susceptible to damaging effects of alcohol than men

Women are more susceptible to the damaging effects of alcohol than men because they are generally smaller in stature and have less body water than men, according to a leading Houston hepatologist.

16 Dec 2013

Research roundup: Long-term care use varies dramatically by state; health spending slowdown explained

In 2012, about 58,500 paid, regulated long-term care services providers served about 8 million people in the United States. Long-term care services were provided by 4,800 adult day services centers, 12,200 home health agencies, 3,700 hospices, 15,700 nursing homes, and 22,200 assisted living and similar residential care communities. Each day in 2012, there were 273,200 participants enrolled in adult day services centers, 1,383,700 residents in nursing homes, and 713,300 residents in residential care communities; in 2011, about 4,742,500 patients received services from home health agencies, and 1,244,500 patients received services from hospices. Provider sectors differed in ownership, and average size and supply varied by region (Harris-Kojetin et al., 12/12).

16 Dec 2013

Emergent BioSolutions enters into definitive agreement to acquire Cangene

Emergent BioSolutions Inc.announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement with Cangene Corporation (TSX: CNJ) under which Emergent will acquire all of the outstanding common shares of Cangene in an all-cash transaction valued at $3.24 per share on a fully diluted basis for an aggregate purchase price of $222 million.

12 Dec 2013

Patient survival higher among white children than minorities post liver transplant

Novel research reveals racial and socioeconomic disparities among pediatric liver transplant patients. Findings published in Liver Transplantation, a journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases and the International Liver Transplantation Society, indicate that graft and patient survival was higher in white children than minorities.

6 Dec 2013

MassBiologics gets FDA orphan drug designation for MBL-HCV1 antibody

MassBiologics of the University of Massachusetts Medical School has received an orphan drug designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for MBL-HCV1, a monoclonal antibody developed to prevent hepatitis C virus recurrence in patients receiving a liver transplant.

5 Dec 2013

FDA approves OLYSIO (simeprevir) for treatment of chronic hepatitis C infection

Janssen Therapeutics, Division of Janssen Products, LP, announced today the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved OLYSIO (simeprevir), an NS3/4A protease inhibitor, for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C infection as part of an antiviral treatment regimen in combination with pegylated interferon and ribavirin in genotype 1 infected adults with compensated liver disease, including cirrhosis.

23 Nov 2013

Livers from donors with pre-hospital cardiac arrest considered for transplant

Researchers from the U.K. suggest that using organs from donors after circulatory death (DCD) who also suffered a previous cardiac arrest out of the hospital environment could expand the pool of available livers for transplant.

11 Nov 2013

Simple tool to identify patients at risk of engaging in "medication tradeoffs" after liver transplantation

Researchers at Northwestern University and Emory University propose a simple tool to identify patients who are at risk of engaging in "medication tradeoffs." The study authors address the problem of patients with financial hardship who make the regular choice of meeting basic needs such as buying food rather than paying for medications after receiving a liver transplant.

4 Nov 2013

Children who receive solid-organ transplants have risk of developing advanced kidney disease

Children who undergo transplants of solid organs have a high risk of developing advanced kidney disease, according to a new national study. Among these children, the highest risk is in those receiving lung or intestinal transplants, followed by heart and then liver transplants. The researchers say their findings reinforce the importance of continued screening of kidney function in pediatric transplant recipients.

14 Oct 2013