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Kidney Transplant — Positive Crossmatch
The Positive Crossmatch and Sensitized Patient Kidney Transplant program performs kidney transplants in patients who have developed antibodies against their kidney donors — a situation known as "positive crossmatch." The process is similar to that for blood type incompatible kidney transplants.
Patients may receive medications to decrease their antibody levels or they may undergo plasmapharesis treatments to
remove the harmful antibodies from their blood.
Plasmapheresis, which is similar to dialysis, is used to remove these harmful antibodies from the blood. Patients require five to 10 treatments with plasmapheresis before transplant and may require several more after transplant to keep their antibody levels down. If antibody levels to their donors are reduced, they can proceed with transplants.
Blood type incompatible kidney transplants and positive crossmatch kidney transplants have been very successful. Success rates are close to those for transplants from compatible living donors and are better than the success rates for deceased donor transplants. This is an excellent option for patients who otherwise are not able to have a living donor kidney transplant.
To discuss a living donor kidney transplant, call the UCSF Transplant office at (415) 353-1551 and ask for the Living Donor Kidney Transplant Program coordinator
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