Transplantable Organs
Up to 50 lives can be saved or enhanced by a single donor. Solid
organs alone can help up to eight individuals, and tissue can
help many times that number.
- Solid organs: heart, kidneys,
liver, lungs, pancreas and intestine
- Find out more about what each organ does, what it looks
like and diseases that can lead to its failure:
- Take a virtual tour of the human body and see how
the solid organs fit and work together
(requires Macromedia Flash player, a free download: download
Flash)
- Tissues: blood, bone marrow, connective
tissue, corneas, heart valves, skin
The Transplant Process
For certain types of end-stage organ failure, transplantation is the treatment
that offers a patient the best opportunity for a healthier, more vital life.
The road to transplantation is a carefully plotted
course:
- Referral: An individual's primary care physician or specialist
refers the patient to the transplant clinic. After an initial visit, medical
history review and examination, the transplant clinic determines if the patient
should be evaluated for transplantation.
- Evaluation: The evaluation phase consists of a series
of in-depth laboratory, physical and psychological exams. When the evaluation
is complete, the patient's case is presented at selection conference.
- Listing: At selection conference, representatives from
each corner of the transplant program — physicians, surgeons, nurses,
social workers and financial specialists — review the patient's chart
and evaluation to determine if the patient is an appropriate candidate
for transplantation. If so, the patient's name and vital clinical data are
entered into the national organ transplant database: the waiting list. If
the patient is a candidate for a possible living donor organ (kidney or
liver), family and friends may volunteer to be tested to see if any of them
is a tissue match and possible donor. In any event, the wait begins.
- Transplantation: This is it! The beginning of the next
phase of the patient's life: a new beginning. With transplantation begins,
too, a lifetime of immunosuppressive medication to keep the recipient's body
from rejecting the donor organ(s). The transplant center follows each recipient
for a lifetime: annual exams and biopsies are routine. But it's a small price
to pay for the rarest of opportunities: a second chance at life.
For more information, see Transplant Living at www.transplantliving.org/.
Frequently Asked Questions and Myths
Transplantation has saved and enhanced the lives of hundreds of thousands
of people over recent decades. It has proven such a successful
treatment for many forms of end-stage organ disease that most major medical
insurers pay for the procedure. Still, misunderstanding, confusion and
even urban myths persist. Get the facts here.
Additional Resources
|
