U.S. surgeons perform HIV+ transplants
A long-awaited option for AIDS patients
WASHINGTON — Surgeons in Baltimore for the first time have transplanted organs between an HIVpositive donor and HIVpositive recipients, a longawaited new option for patients with the AIDS virus whose kidneys or livers also are failing.
Johns Hopkins University announced this week that both recipients are recovering well after one received a kidney and the other a liver from a deceased donor — organs that ordinarily wouldn’t have been transplanted because of the HIV infection.
Doctors in South Africa have reported successfully transplanting HIV-positive kidneys, but Hopkins said the HIV-positive liver transplant is the firstworldwide. Hopkins didn’t identify its patients but said the kidney recipient is recuperating at home and the liver recipient is expected to be discharged soon.
“This could mean a new chance at life,” said Dr. Dorry Segev, a Hopkins transplant specialist who pushed for legislation lifting a 25-year U.S. ban on the approach and estimates that hundreds of HIV-positive patients may benefit.
For patients who don’t already have the AIDS virus, nothing changes— they wouldn’t be offered HIVpositive organs.
Instead, the
surgeries, performed this month, are part of research to determine whether HIV-to-HIV transplants really help.
In the U.S., HIV-positive patients already are eligible to receive transplants from HIV-negative donors just like anyone else on the waiting list. Thousands die waiting each year.
If the new approach works, one hope is that it could free up space on the waiting list as HIV-positive patients take advantage of organs available only to them.