Historic children's kidney transplant performed in Barcelona
Crossover transplant involving team from Sant Joan de Déu and Clínic Hospitals is first of its kind in Spain
kidney
Catalan health service opens two new clinical expertise networks for rare diseases
Units from different hospitals will coordinate to focus on neuromuscular disorders and primary immunodeficiencies
Child with rare disease receives Spain's first pediatric heart, liver and kidney transplant
Operated on at Barcelona's Vall d'Hebron, 10-year-old is disease's longest survivor and sole triple transplant recipient
First time creating “micro-kidneys” from stem cells
Researchers from Barcelona’s Centre for Regenerative Medicine (CMRB), the Catalan capital’s Hospital Clínic and the Salk Institute of California have successfully created three-dimensional renal structures which are virtually indistinguishable from embryonic kidneys. They have started creating kidney cells from human stem cells, and ultimately proven that these newly created cells could aggregate in vitro to form a “micro-kidney”. The team led by Juan Carlos Izpisúa, from the CMRB, said that this scientific breakthrough would facilitate the study of kidney diseases and enable scientists to work on new treatments. He added that this achievement was a great step towards developing therapies based on the use of stem cells.
A Catalan study shows that a world-pioneering dialysis technique reduces patient mortality by 30%
The technique started in Catalonia in 2007 and by 2011 it was practiced on 40% of patients with renal failure. The Catalan Health Ministry hopes to cover 100% of the cases within the next 5 to 10 years. In the United States it started being used a year ago as they were waiting for clinical results to expand its use. Now, a clinical study on 900 patients from 27 different Catalan centres has proved that the technique reduces mortality by 30% on patients with kidney failure within the first three years. In addition, it improves quality of life, reduces hospitalisations by 22% and it also makes hypotension episodes drop by 28%.