Publications by authors named "J Wellen"
Article Synopsis
- Robotic kidney transplant (RKT) is explored as a safe alternative to open kidney transplant (OKT), despite previous selection biases affecting patient comparisons.
- A study comparing outcomes from 50 RKT patients and 100 OKT patients found that while RKT had longer operative and warm ischemia times, it also resulted in less blood loss and lower rates of post-operative complications.
- Overall, RKT demonstrates significant advantages over OKT, suggesting its potential to become the new standard of care for patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD).
Article Synopsis
- Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) is a major cause of kidney failure and can reoccur after transplantation, leading to poor outcomes, prompting research into bleselumab, a drug targeting the CD40 pathway, to prevent recurrent FSGS.
- A phase 2a study tested bleselumab combined with standard immunosuppressants in kidney transplant patients with a history of FSGS, comparing its effectiveness to the standard care regimen over 12 months.
- The study found no significant difference in the recurrence of FSGS between bleselumab and standard care, though bleselumab showed a slight decrease in proteinuria,
Article Synopsis
- Donation after circulatory death (DCD) liver allografts, when recovered using advanced techniques like thoracoabdominal normothermic regional perfusion (TA-NRP), show promising results in reducing complications compared to traditional methods.
- A study from 8 centers found that despite some donors having extended warm ischemic times, no instances of primary non-function (PNF) or ischemic cholangiopathy (IC) occurred in the recipients.
- Overall, DCD liver allografts post-TA-NRP demonstrated favorable early outcomes, with manageable complications and reasonable length of stay in ICU and hospitals.
We investigated the use of robotic objective performance metrics (OPM) to predict number of cases to proficiency and independence among abdominal transplant fellows performing robot-assisted donor nephrectomy (RDN). 101 RDNs were performed by 5 transplant fellows from September 2020 to October 2023. OPM included fellow percent active control time (%ACT) and handoff counts (HC).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Robotic donor nephrectomy (RDN) has emerged as a safe alternative to laparoscopic donor nephrectomy (LDN). Having previously demonstrated comparable efficacy, this study aims to examine postoperative analgesia use (opioid and non-opioid) in the two groups.
Methods: We conducted a retrospective review of 300 living donor nephrectomies performed at our center, comparing 150 RDN's with a contemporary cohort of 150 hand-assisted LDN's.