Post-Traumatic Growth among Patients after Living and Cadaveric Donor Kidney Transplantation: The Role of Resilience and Alexithymia.

The aim of this study was to determine the role of resilience and alexithymia in the post-traumatic growth as a response to extreme stress in patients after kidney transplantation and to determine whether there are differences in the level of posttraumatic growth in patients after living and cadaveric donor kidney transplantation. The relationships between these variables were also evaluated. The questionnaire survey of 91 kidney recipients took place in 2018 and 2019. The following tools were used: authorial post-transplant questionnaire for recipients and validated questionnaires, Post Traumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI-R), Resilience Coping Scale Questionnaire, and Toronto Alexithymia Scale Questionnaire (TAS20). The results obtained showed significant differences between the group of kidney recipients from living donors and recipients from cadaveric donors, in terms of overall post-traumatic growth, as well as changes in self-perception and a greater appreciation for life. Post-traumatic growth in both groups was related to the level of resilience and the level of alexithymia. Resilience is an accurate predictor of posttraumatic growth in general and for each of the groups of recipients separately.

Colonoscopy as Part of Pre-Transplant Work-Up in Successful Kidney Transplant Candidates: Single-Center Experience and Review of Literature.

BACKGROUND Screening colonoscopy is not obligatory in kidney pre-transplant work-up guidelines. According to recommendations, only transplant recipients over age 50 years should be screened. The aim of this study was to characterize endoscopic findings revealed as part of pre-transplant work-up. MATERIAL AND METHODS We retrospectively reviewed pre-transplant work-up charts of 434 adult patients who received a cadaveric donor kidney transplantation (KT) from 2012 to 2015. Endoscopic findings analysis with age subgroup (<50 and ³50) analysis were performed. RESULTS Out of 434 of patients that underwent KT, 29% have had a colonoscopy. In 75.6% of those, pathologies were found. Hemorrhoids were found in 33% and polyps in 30.7% of patients. Adenoma detection rate (ADR) was 18.1% (67.5% distal predominance). Advanced ADR was 10.2% (distal predominance). Diverticulosis was found in 28.3% of patients and ulcerative colitis was found in 2.4%. In age subgroup analysis, ADR was higher in patients ³50 years compared to those <50 years (21.6% vs. 4%; p=0.041). CONCLUSIONS Colonoscopy as part of pre-transplant work-up enables removal of precancerous lesions and management of benign findings. All candidates meeting criteria for the general population should be screened. Patients under age 50 years could also benefit from colonoscopy as part of the pre-transplant work-up. Therefore, we suggest that baseline colonoscopy should be included in pre-transplant work-up guidelines for all patients, regardless of age. However, further studies are needed to confirm this recommendation.

Gallbladder Pathologies in Kidney Transplant Recipients: Single-Center Experience and a Review of the Literature.

BACKGROUND In patients with end-stage renal disease, cholelithiasis is observed with an increased frequency. In transplant recipients, symptoms might be obscured, which may delay the diagnosis and lead to complications. The aim of our study was to evaluate the frequency of gallbladder pathologies in kidney transplant recipients (KTRs) in the Caucasian population, and to discuss the potential benefits of prophylactic cholecystectomy before kidney transplantation (KT). MATERIAL AND METHODS Data from 434 patients who underwent KT was analyzed. Demographic data along with gallbladder status were collected from the pre-transplantation charts. We compared our results to data from the general Polish population. RESULTS In our analyzed group of KTRs, there were 284 men and 150 women. Complete data, including abdominal ultrasound description, were available in 412 cases. In this group, 36 patients (8.74%) underwent cholecystectomy before KT. Other gallbladder pathologies (gallstones and polyps) were found in 41 patients (9.95%) at pre-transplantation evaluation. The incidence of gallbladder pathologies in KTRs, being mostly cholelithiasis, was higher than in the general Polish population. CONCLUSIONS In specific age subgroups of KTRs, the frequency of gallbladder pathologies was higher than in the general population. Prophylactic cholecystectomy may potentially offer benefits in these subgroups of patients.

Acetaminophen (Paracetamol) induced acute liver failure - A social problem in an era of increasing tendency to self-treatment.

INTRODUCTION: The widespread availability of medication without prescription, so-called over the counter (OTC), and the rapid development of health consciousness of Poles is associated with broad access to medical information in the mass media. This causes patients to recognize their own disease, cancel doctor's appointments, and begin self-treatment. This time and money-saving behavior, often signaled by pain, usually leads to the treatment of symptoms alone, without seeking the cause of the disease.The aim of the study was to present life-threatening paracetamol poisoning, and the treatment of acute liver failure. MATERIAL AND METHODS: In 2002-2014, 35 patients were hospitalized due to acute paracetamol poisoning: 17 female and 18 male patients aged between 17-59 (mean 32.3 years). Patients were treated in the surgical intensive care unit, where their parameters of liver and renal function were continuously monitored. If there was no improvement in the liver function, patients underwent albumin dialysis with the Prometheus system and were qualified for liver transplantation (LTx). RESULTS: 26 patients were treated pharmacologically and 7 out of 9 patients who underwent LTx were dialyzed. Overall, 11 patients had 26 albumin dialysis in total; 4 patients died - 1 post-transplant and 3 pre-transplant. CONCLUSIONS: Paracetamol is the cause of many poisonings resulting from the lack of public awareness about toxic interactions with alcohol, and suicide attempts. Acetaminophen-induced acute liver failure concerns a small percentage of patients but can be successfully treated with albumin dialysis, and in extreme cases by liver transplantation.

Organization and Development of Bone Marrow Donation and Transplantation in Poland.

This paper describes bone marrow donation and transplantation in Poland in terms of its history, current state, and information on the quality control system. Based on data gathered from the informatics systems of the Polish Central Unrelated Potential Bone Marrow Donor and Cord Blood Registry and the Polish transplant registries, as well as World Marrow Donor Association statistics, we performed an overview study to collect and compare numbers on hematopoietic stem cells donations and transplantations in Poland in the years 2010-2014. In the last 5 years, the number of registered potential hematopoietic stem cells donors in Poland increased by more than 4 times, from about 146,000 to over 750,000. During the same period, the number of patients qualified to hematopoietic stem cells transplantation from unrelated donor increased from 557 in 2010 to 817 in 2014. We observed a striking change in the percentage of transplantations performed in Polish centers using material collected from national donors--from 24% to 60%. This shift was also evident in the number of search procedures closed with acceptation of Polish donors--from 27% in 2010 to 58% in 2014. Another consequence of Polish registry growth is the increasing number of donations from Polish donors for international patients. Between 2010 and 2014, the percent of donation for non-national patient increased from 33% to 76%, placing Poland in 6th place in the ranking of the HSC "exporters" worldwide. Growth of transplantation rates involves standardization process, which is a natural way of development for national organizations in the field of HSCT because of its international character.

The Role of Medical Air Rescue Services in Medical Transport of Organ Recipients in Poland: Organizational Solutions Supporting Transplantation Medicine.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to analyze the use of fixed-wing air ambulance (FWAA) services in Poland during the period 2012-2013, with particular emphasis on air transport of organ recipients to transplantation centers. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This was a retrospective, cross-sectional analysis of data derived from standard FWAA medical documentation. RESULTS: In the years 2012-2013 there were 500 emergency (52.7%) and 447 elective (47.3%) missions. Children who were 1-10 years old comprised the single largest group in both emergency (EM) and elective (EL) missions, accounting for 17% of all flights. EM transports carried mainly patients aged 49-59 (18.5%), and 35.1% of all EM transports concerned patients with end-stage renal disease qualified as organ recipients who were transported to transplantation centers. With a total of 2278 kidney transplantations performed in Poland within the period analyzed, up to 7.8% recipients were transported by air medical services. For EL flights, the most numerous group were patients aged 1-10 (25.4%) and this group comprised mainly patients with congenital disorders (17.9%) and cardiovascular diseases (15.8%). The average flight duration was similar for both EM and EL groups (41.7±10.5 min vs. 40.4±8.7 min, respectively) (p=NS), as was the average distance covered (321.8±99.4 km vs. 310.5±87.4 km, respectively) (p=NS). In the case of patients with end-stage renal disease, the average distance and flight time were significantly longer than those for all other groups in total: 382.5±96.4 km vs. 302.6±87.3 km (p<0.001) and 74.9±10.2 min vs. 39.7±8.8 min (p<0.001), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The most frequent clinical indication for FWAA transport was end-stage renal disease and most of those flights were carried out as EM. The FWAA service plays a vital role in the organization of pre-transplantation transport to referral centers in Poland. This analysis supports the data for evaluation and potential changes in the Polish distribution and allocation rules for kidney transplantation.

Serious adverse events and reactions in organ transplantation; a web-net tool-based nationwide system for reporting and monitoring.

Organ transplantation is vulnerable to serious adverse reactions and events, which require a system for their monitoring and management, as required of EU Member States by Directive 2010/53/EU. A management system was implemented in Poland using modern network technologies through the following steps: 1) the development of a catalogue of events and reactions, 2) the preparation and implementation of the network module, 3) the operational procedures, 4) the evaluation system. The catalogue consists of reactions and events in recipients and living donors related to organ procurement. A referral system was introduced as a module of a web tool www.rejestry.net (400 participated institutions). Notification includes information regarding the location, type, description, analysis, and measures taken to resolve and prevent problems. During the period 2012-2013, 17 serious adverse events and 112 reactions were documented among 3223 transplanted organs (events in 0.5% and reactions in 3.4% of the cases). The major cases included: transplantation from a donor with neoplasia, early recipient death, early graft loss, and transmission of severe infection. Evaluation revealed underestimated number of notifications of "death of recipient within 30 post-transplant days", which reported 74 of the 92 reactions (80%) occurring in reality. The system is a platform for self-assessment and the dissemination of information regarding the potential dangers, including alarms in cases in which an event/reaction in one center is accessible to others. However, the system is not punitive, because the fear of disclosing failures in the transplant centers plays an important role in the monitoring process.

Attitude of healthcare professionals: a major limiting factor in organ donation from brain-dead donors.

Public attitude toward deceased donor organ recovery in Poland is quite positive, with only 15% opposing to donation of their own organs, yet actual donation rate is only 16/pmp. Moreover, donation rate varies greatly (from 5 to 28 pmp) in different regions of the country. To identify the barriers of organ donation, we surveyed 587 physicians involved in brain death diagnosis from regions with low (LDR) and high donation rates (HDR). Physicians from LDR were twice more reluctant to start diagnostic procedure when clinical signs of brain death were present (14% versus 5.5% physicians from HDR who would not diagnose death, resp.). Twenty-five percent of LDR physicians (as opposed to 12% of physicians from HDR) would either continue with intensive therapy or confirm brain death and limit to the so-called minimal therapy. Only 32% of LDR physicians would proceed with brain death diagnosis regardless of organ donation, compared to 67% in HDR. When donation was not an option, mechanical ventilation would be continued more often in LDR regions (43% versus 26.7%; P < 0.01). In conclusion, low donation activity seems to be mostly due to medical staff attitude.

Identification of patients with increased immunological risk among potential kidney recipients in the Polish population.

Pretransplant identification of allosensitized patients is possible thanks to new technologies, which allow for accurate detection of clinically relevant alloantibodies. Implementation of these methods in the screening of patients awaiting transplantation increased their chance for successful donor-recipient matching. Here, 1460 patients reported to the Polish National Waiting List were screened with the Luminex Screen (LS) solid phase test for anti-HLA antibodies. The patients with detected anti-HLA antibodies were assayed with the Luminex Single Antigen (LSA) tests in order to establish defined antigen specificity of the alloantibodies. The results were compared with data on the immunization assessed with the routine complement-dependent-cytotoxicity panel-reactive-antibody assay (PRA CDC). The study showed significantly higher sensitivity of the LS method when compared with PRA CDC. It has been shown that LSA test is a useful technique identifying the specificities of alloantibodies. In particular, LSA allowed to assess donor specific antibodies (DSA) to previous mismatches (MM) and to determine acceptable HLA mismatches of the potential donors. The introduction of solid phase tests in routine pretransplant diagnostics allowed for faster and more accurate assessment of the immunological risk of the recipients and optimal donor-recipient matching. Hence, the presented algorithm of solid phase assays has become a new standard for the identification of allosensitized patients awaiting kidney transplantation in Poland.

Survey on attitudes and knowledge on the organ recovery from deceased donors in Roman Catholic nuns and priests.

UNLABELLED: Deceased donors (DD) organ recovery rate in Poland has never been satisfactory but over the years kidney transplantation from deceased donors has reached the level of 26 transplants/pmp. In 2007 due to a number of reasons, a dramatic fall of organ recovery rate from deceased donors (DD) occurred. The survey on public attitude toward organ transplantation carried out in the same year showed a large reduction of the public trust toward medical profession. Since then, the number of kidney transplantations has never come back to its level from 2006, regardless of a positive attitude toward organ transplantation. The attitude and knowledge survey was recently carried out in 100 physicians and 100 nurses employed in one large district hospital. The results of the attitude survey among the hospital staff showed that the level of knowledge among nurses corresponded to their age and the time since graduation. Younger nurses showed much more appreciation and knowledge toward recovery of organs from the deceased donors. Survey among physicians indicated some hesitation toward recognition of the brain death. In the present paper results of the survey on attitude and knowledge toward organ transplantation among nuns (98 nuns), priests (100 priests) and students (98 students) of the Theological School living in the same area are presented. Despite quite high (>60%) acceptance of the deceased donation, one third of questioned population showed lack of knowledge not only on existing legal regulations, but also of important documents issued by the Catholic Church. CONCLUSIONS: Improvement of transplantation program in Poland requires extensive educational program among various parts of the society: most importantly among physicians, nurses and priests. The Partnership for Transplantation program has been directed to achieve these goals.

The early and long term function and survival of kidney allografts stored before transplantation by hypothermic pulsatile perfusion. A prospective randomized study.

BACKGROUND: A prospective evaluation of the influence of methods of kidney storage prior to transplantation on long-term graft function has not been shown so far. A retrospective study undertaken in 415 patients in our department showed the benefit of machine perfusion (MP) on long-term results. The aim of the present study was to assess prospectively the long term function and survival of paired kidney allografts retrieved from the same donor, comparing the influence of cold storage (CS) and MP. MATERIAL/METHODS: 74 recipients included in the study received kidneys from 37 cadaveric donors. Kidneys were randomized to storage by CS or MP. There were no significant differences between the groups as to age, gender, duration of ESRD treatment, PRA titres, HLA compatibility and immunosuppressive regimens. RESULTS: At 10 years follow-up recipients of CS-stored kidneys returned to dialysis treatment twice as frequently as recipients of MP-stored kidneys (50% vs. 25%, p=0.02). CONCLUSIONS: Kidney storage by MP improves graft survival and reduces the number of patients who return to dialysis treatment at long-term post-transplant.

Prognostic significance of free radicals: mediated injury occurring in the kidney donor.

BACKGROUND: Brain death is associated with hemodynamic disturbances in systemic circulation and metabolic storm, and, thus, free radical-mediated injury to donor tissues was hypothesized. An assessment of oxidative stress in the donor and its effect on posttransplant kidney graft function comprised the scope of the study. METHODS: A prospective study was performed in 27 donors and 50 kidney transplant recipients. Sera from 27 brain-dead organ donors and preservation media were tested for malondialdehyde (MDA) and for total antioxidant status (TAS). Kidneys were preserved in University of Wisconsin-gluconate solution with machine perfusion. Mean ischemia time was 36.7+/-8 hours. Organs were transplanted to recipients on the Polish National Waiting List and posttransplant kidney function was monitored periodically. Posttransplant delayed graft function (DF) was diagnosed when a patient required at least one dialysis within first week after transplantation. Acute rejection was diagnosed clinically and confirmed with fine-needle biopsy if necessary. RESULTS: Thirty-two recipients had immediate graft function (IF), and 18 suffered from DF. MDA level in preservation solution at the end of machine perfusion was significantly higher in the DF group (52.6+/-31 vs. 25.3+/-19 micromol/L) whereas donor TAS activity was lower (1.14+/-0.2 vs. 0.97+/-0.3 mmol/mL). Patients who suffered from acute rejection received kidneys from donors with significantly higher serum MDA (66+/-73 micromol/ml vs. 23+/-49 for patients without rejection). Serum creatinine 12 to 48 months after transplantation correlated to donor- and preservation-solution MDA (P<0.006). CONCLUSIONS: Free-radical mediated injury occurring in the donor and during preservation is strictly correlated with immediate and long-term kidney function. It may also cause grafts to be prone to acute rejection.