China News Service, Wuhan, March 18 (Chang Yu) Trans-blood type kidney transplantation requires the removal of ABO blood group antibodies in the blood first, but theory confirms that there are almost no blood group antibodies in babies under 1 year old.
Under the premise of "zero pretreatment", Wuhan Tongji Hospital carried out a cross-blood kidney transplant for a 7-month-old baby Kaibao (a pseudonym).
The results of the re-examination on the 17th showed that Kaibao's new kidney had functioned normally and there was no rejection reaction.
Kaibao came from Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia. He was diagnosed with "congenital gene mutation nephropathy syndrome" shortly after birth. Kidney transplantation is the only hope for survival.
It was learned that Wuhan Tongji Hospital had successfully implemented kidney transplants for many babies. In October 2020, the parents brought Kaibao to Wuhan to wait for the source of the kidneys.
According to Zhu Lan, deputy chief physician of Wuhan Tongji Hospital, there are currently two sources of organs for kidney transplantation in China: living donations from relatives and voluntary donations after the death of citizens.
Kaibao is too young. Although his parents have asked for a kidney donation, the adult kidney is too large to perform surgery.
In addition, Kaibao is blood type O, according to transplantation routines, only type O kidneys can be accepted.
Therefore, the chances are even slimmer.
During the 4-month waiting period, Kaibao was hospitalized several times due to her young age, low weight, poor physical fitness, and underlying diseases, repeated infections, and even went to the pediatric intensive care unit twice, and was dying several times.
Kaibao's condition made Chen Gang, a professor at the Institute of Organ Transplantation of Wuhan Tongji Hospital, extremely anxious.
He remembered a document he had read that blood group antibodies are often produced after 1 year old, so infant cross-blood heart transplantation can be successful without any special treatment. Based on this inference, Chen Gang believes that infant cross-blood kidney transplantation is also the same. It is feasible.
Chen Gang consulted the literature and obtained relevant corroboration.
In order to verify that the baby did not have blood group antibodies, Chen Gang arranged two blood tests for Kaibao, and the results confirmed his judgment: indeed, there are almost no anti-A and anti-B blood group antibodies.
This also means that Kaibao can accept type A, type B or AB type kidney transplantation without any special treatment.
On February 5, 2021, Wuhan Tongji Hospital obtained a kidney donation for children with type A blood.
On the same day, Kaibao underwent a kidney transplant.
After the operation, under the protection of conventional anti-rejection drugs, Kaibao's new kidney functioned immediately and was quickly removed from dialysis treatment.
Chen Gang said that the practice of Kaibao's cross-blood type kidney transplantation brings hope to more children with kidney disease and provides a basis for all cross-blood type organ transplants for babies within one year of age.
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