The NHS is introducing a “double matching” blood process for kidney transplant patients to help ensure donated organs are less likely to be rejected.
In addition to ensuring blood types match, scientists will now align white blood cells as closely as possible.
NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) stated that the initiative could potentially prevent 100 kidney transplants from being rejected each year.
Health leaders also hope the move will decrease the number of individuals waiting years for an organ, with some patients currently remaining on the waiting list for decades.
Health service officials are rolling out the scheme nationwide for all kidney transplant patients following a successful pilot at London’s Hammersmith Hospital and the Royal Free.
Approximately two in every five kidney transplant recipients require blood transfusions either before or after their operation. After a transfusion, some individuals produce antibodies; if these antibodies target the donated kidney, the likelihood of organ rejection increases.
Her own kidneys were removed due to a Wilms tumour, a type of childhood kidney cancer.
She had transplants from deceased donors in 1994 and 1997, which were then rejected. She had a kidney from her father in 2004, which is still functioning well.
“I’ve had more than 10 blood transfusions,” she said.
“Matching the blood for white blood cells will be extremely helpful because antibodies are always a worry. If I need blood, I am scared I will get them. If that risk can be alleviated it will be a massive relief.
“This is very much a risk kidney patients worry about. When I get my bloods done, I always want to know there’s no evidence of new antibodies. Antibodies and rejection are always in the back of our minds.”
Fiona Loud, policy director for Kidney Care UK, said: “The waiting list is sadly at an all time high, so where there are barriers like over-sensitisation, we very much welcome the science that could now make it possible to avoid an immune response which makes it more difficult to achieve or retain a successful kidney transplant.
“This news is reassuring to kidney patients, who frequently need blood transfusions, and women with kidney disease who want to have children.”
In June, there were 7,304 people waiting for a kidney transplant or a combined kidney and pancreas transplant, according to NHSBT figures.
Around 250 to 300 people die waiting for a kidney transplant each year.
