kidney failure-related stories
Life expectancy for women drops
Womens Health, Obesity, Diet & Weight Loss, Fitness
Bad news for women in the Washington Post yesterday. A study, also published yesterday, reveals evidence that life expectancy is falling for a significant number of American females.
According to the Post, the study cites that in nearly 1,000 counties that together are home to about 12 percent of the nation's women, life expectancy is now shorter than it was in the early 1980s. This marks the first decline in life expectancy for a significant number of women since the Spanish influenza of 1918, the Post reports.
According to the Post, the study cites that in nearly 1,000 counties that together are home to about 12 percent of the nation's women, life expectancy is now shorter than it was in the early 1980s. This marks the first decline in life expectancy for a significant number of women since the Spanish influenza of 1918, the Post reports.
The culprits? Death from diabetes, lung cancer, emphysema and kidney failure as well as the long-term consequences of smoking, a habit that women took up in large numbers decades after men did, and the slowing of the historic decline in heart disease deaths.
First six-way kidney transplant performed
10 hours. Six operating rooms. Nine surgical teams. And six new kidneys. Johns Hopkins surgeons performed six simultaneous kidney transplants -- a surgery believed to be the first of its kind. Five of the six transplant candidates had family members willing to donate a kidney, but were incompatible for their family member. When a sixth donor -- an altruistic donor who was willing to donate to anyone in need -- stepped in, the final necessary piece of the puzzle was found. The others who were willing to donate may not have been a match for their family member, but they were matches for others who were waiting for a transplant. The surgeries were successful, and the lead surgeon reports that all donors and transplant recipients are doing well.
While most donated kidneys come from deceased donors, live donors are preferred because the success rates are higher. The six patients in this series of operations were matched through a live donor matching system created by Johns Hopkins.
