Biopsy has no added value for predicting kidney-allograft outcomes

Reuters Health - 01/01/2021 - Many donated kidneys rejected due to abnormal histology could have benefited patients waiting for transplants, new findings suggest. "There is a ready opportunity for transplant centers in the U.S. to do more kidney transplants if they were to stop relying so heavily on kidney biopsies to determine the quality of kidneys," said Dr. Peter P. Reese of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, the study's first author. "The experience of centers in France and Belgium - where they routinely accept kidneys from much older donors than we do in the U.S. - shows that kidney biopsies add little or no value in determining if a kidney is good enough for transplant," he told Reuters Health by email. Almost half of kidneys from deceased donors in the U.S. are biopsied before allocation, Dr. Reese noted, and up to half may be rejected due to biopsy findings. Centers in Europe may biopsy donated organs after accepting them, but do ...

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Posted on 1 January, 20218 January, 2021