Ascension St. Vincent Transplant Program Reaches 5,000th Kidney Transplant

Ascension St. Vincent's transplant program marked its 5,000th kidney transplant this month, a milestone hospital officials say reflects the steady growth of one of the region's largest organ transplant programs, which serves patients from across Indiana and neighboring states.

The program, which performs both living-donor and deceased-donor kidney transplants, has expanded its living-donor matching capabilities in recent years through paired kidney exchange programs that allow incompatible donor-recipient pairs to be matched with other pairs facing the same problem, increasing the total number of transplants the program can perform annually.

"Every one of these five thousand transplants represents someone who was facing a very different future on dialysis," said the transplant program's surgical director. "The growth in this number over time is really a story about better matching technology and more willing living donors, not just more surgeons."

The program has also expanded its work with Indiana-based dialysis clinics to identify transplant candidates earlier, a strategy hospital officials said improves outcomes by reducing the amount of time patients spend on dialysis before receiving a transplant. Officials noted that patients who receive a kidney transplant before starting dialysis, known as preemptive transplantation, generally have better long-term outcomes.

Ascension St. Vincent, which operates hospitals across central Indiana, said the transplant program currently performs several hundred kidney transplants annually and continues to expand its living-donor outreach programs in underserved communities where transplant rates have historically lagged.