Immunoadsorption and hemodialysis as a tandem procedure: a single-center experience of more than 60 procedures.

Purpose: We have designed a desensitization program that gives good results and is cost effective for kidney-transplant patients who have a potential living donor, who are ABO incompatible (ABOi), and who may or may not have donor-specific alloantibodies (DSAs).

Methods: Desensitization at pretransplant is based on immunosuppressants (such as rituximab, tacrolimus, and mycophenolic acid) and apheresis to retrieve potentially detrimental isoagglutinins and DSAs from blood. In 2011, we implemented immunoadsorption (IA) instead of plasmapheresis in our center as part of the desensitization protocol.

How to implement immunoadsorption in a polyvalent dialysis unit: a review.

Background: Many kidney-transplant candidates have anti-HLA alloantibodies (HLAi): these make transplantation difficult, even from a living kidney (LK) donor, because of the presence of donor-specific anti-HLA alloantibodies. Due to the shortage of deceased kidney donors, the number of LK transplants is increasing, but is potentially limited by ABO incompatibility (ABOi).

Objectives: To make ABOi and/or HLAi patients suitable for kidney transplantation they need to be desensitised: this strategy is mainly based on rituximab therapy combined with either plasmapheresis (PP) or immunoadsorption (IA).

[Comparative study of needs of transplanted patients or those waiting for an organ transplantation and the nurses' attitudes of these needs].

Literature has shown that information, education and support had a beneficial effect on how the patients and their family lived through the transplant process. In our daily practice, we are permanently confronted with requests for information and psychological adjustments from our patients. Do the needs of this population meet the representations of the care-takers? Our theoretical framework is based on the theories of Maslow and Callista Roy, on the concept of social representations according to Moscovici and on the steps of the transplant process.