Successful outcome of transplant of kidneys recovered from a brain-dead liver transplant recipient: case report

Successful Transplant of Two Kidneys Harvested from a Young Brain-Dead Liver Transplant Recipient

Efforts to increase the dismal deceased renal transplantation (DRT): live renal transplantation (LRT) ratio in our country have gathered momentum recently, with governmental and non-governmental projects focussing on building public awareness and capacity-building, and appropriate legislation. Worldwide, efforts at increasing the number of organs from the deceased pool have focussed on the use of 'expanded criteria donors', including deceased cardiac donors (DCD). 'Reuse' transplant, where an organ is transplanted after removal from the first recipient, is a rare strategy, used more commonly in liver than in kidney transplantation. Exceptional circumstances, where other organs have been harvested from transplant recipients, are rare. We describe the successful transplants of two renal grafts obtained from a 19-year-old brain-dead liver transplant recipient; this is probably the second case in English-language literature. A 19-year-old male patient with hepatitis E-induced fulminant hepatic failure underwent live-related liver transplantation. On postoperative day 2, cerebral edema set in, and the patient was declared brain-dead. Despite the economical and emotional trauma, the family opted for donation of the well-perfused kidneys. The kidneys were transported in HTK solution (histidine-tryptophan-ketoglutarate) to our centre. Recipient 1 was a 32-year-old woman (B positive) and recipient 2 was a 29-year-old man (also B positive); the kidneys were placed extraperitoneally and anastomosed end-to-side to the external iliac artery and vein. Recipient 2 experienced delayed graft function; however, both are doing well 15 months posttransplant.