Cover photo (courtesy of Megan Thomas): Double donor Megan Thomas celebrates 5 year kidney-versary with recipient Meg Tytler. Joining them is living liver recipient Nyla Douglas. They shared their story at the 2019 Living Donor Celebration Event. View it here

Thank you to former Centre team members, Heather Lannon and Courtney Mahrt, who moved to exciting new positions in 2021, and TeamUHN and TeamTransplant members who have continued to provide exemplary care to patients and living donors despite very challenging circumstances. A special thanks to the A.C.T.I.O.N. Project team, ACB Organ Health Committee, Centre Governance Committee and Volunteer Advisory Council, Living Donation Week and Living Donor Circle of Excellence partners, Centre event speakers, our funders and sponsors and the living donation community. We could not have done it without you!  - Paula Neves PhD, Lead, Centre for Living Organ Donation

1. Allow me to grief (Chinese - Traditional) / Su, Suanhui

2. Always and forever / Gliori, Debi

3. Being mortal: medicine and what matters in the end / Gawande, Atul

4. Beyond tears: living after losing a child / Mitchell Ellen

5. A caregiver's guide: a handbook about end-of-life care / Macmillan, Kar

6. Caring and coping when your loved one is seriously ill / Grollman, Earl A

7. Children also grieve: talking about death and healing / Goldman, Linda

8. Conversations on dying: a palliative-care pioneer faces his own death / Dwyer, Phil

9. Coping with death and grief / Heegaard, Marge E 

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS

Below are links to selected articles on living organ donation and transplantation published within the last six months. If you have a suggestion email us.

Anonymous Living Liver Donor Perspectives on the Role of Family in their Donation Experience  Reviews family reactions to donation, impact of donation on donor-family relationships and opportunities to improve support for donor families based on semi-structured interviews with anonymous living liver donors at UHN.

An Environmental Scan and Evaluation of Quality Indicators Across Canadian Kidney Transplant Centers  Identifies 46 kidney transplant quality indicators currently being measured across Canada and notes significant gaps in measures related to living donation, person-centered care and equitable care. 

Liver Retransplantation Using Living Donor Grafts: A Western Experience. Due to a shortage of deceased donor organs, recipients on the waitlist for a liver retransplant face a 29% mortality rate. This study documents the successful use of living donor liver grafts at UHN for patients requiring liver retransplantation. 

Living Donor Versus Deceased Donor Pediatric Liver Transplantation: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis Children with living donor liver transplant (LDLT) had a 42% lower risk of death and 44% lower risk of organ rejection 1 year post-transplant when compared with children who received a deceased donor liver. Authors concluded that LDLT can help optimize long-term survival and reduce organ shortage and waitlist mortality of pediatric liver recipients. 

Outcomes of living donors are worse than those of matched healthy controls: Is the matching group appropriate? In this letter to the editor Drs Nazia Selzner and Mark Cattral question the methodology, conclusions and generalizability of a recent Korean study on living liver donor outcomes. A significant percentage of donors in the study had pre-existing conditions not present in the healthy control group. In Western countries living donation is only offered to very healthy individuals whereas in Asia, older donors (age > 70 years), donors with higher BMI or other medical or psychiatric co-morbidities may be acceptable because deceased donor rates are low and living donation is often the only path to transplantation.

Risk Factors and Outcomes of Early Hospital Readmission in Canadian Kidney Transplant Recipients: A Population-Based Multi-Center Cohort Study  Hospitaliation within 30 days of discharge was more likely among recipients who were older, lower income, frail, living with COPD or peripheral vascular disease, and who had a longer hospitalization for the initial kidney transplant. These patients were also at increased risk of graft failure and death.

Voucher-Based Kidney Donation and Redemption for Future Transplant  Vouchers enable a living donor to donate now and their intended recipient to have a timely transplant when they need it in the future. This study assesses 250 family voucher-based kidney donations in 79 US transplant centers leading to 573 downstream kidney transplants, many of which would not otherwise have occurred, according to the authors.