Thursday, August 6, 2009

Lifeport Kidney Transporter

Here's a cool little feature from the folks at CBS News describing the use of the "Lifeport Kidney Transporter"--a new hypothermia-perfusion device which functions as a significant upgrade from the standard cooler in which donor kidneys are transported from place to place.

A 2009 NEJM article by Moers et al actually showed in a randomized controlled trial that the Lifeport Kidney Transporter resulted in a superior one-year allograft survival compared to the cooler method. The control & experimental groups were pretty evenly matched in that each of the two kidneys from a given cadaveric harvest was assigned to opposite groups, which is a nice experimental design.

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