New anti-rejection protocol to be detailed
A Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh surgeon next week is to present a new anti-rejection protocol that has been shown to improve patient outcomes.
Dr. Rakesh Sindhi, the hospital's co-director of pediatric transplantation, is to present study results that show intestinal transplant recipients had significantly improved outcomes due to a new low-dose, anti-rejection protocol.
The research performed by Sindhi and colleagues shows the new protocol reduces drug doses and eliminates steroids altogether in young patients.
Sindhi, also an associate professor of surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, is to present four studies during the World Transplant Congress in Boston Monday and Tuesday.
The anti-rejection protocol was originally proposed in 2000 by Dr. Thomas Starzl at the University of Pittsburgh.
"We were pleased and encouraged by the results of this protocol, which included greatly reduced infections, lymphoma-like disorders, and measurable benefits in the rate of height and weight gain, than were seen with previous higher dose regimens," Sindhi said. "Improved survival rates have focused more attention on finding ways to make recovery less difficult and give children a quality of life vastly better than what patients could expect a decade earlier."
Copyright 2006 by United Press International
