Organ procurement teams are sometimes leery of accepting kidneys from deceased donors with acute kidney injury (AKI), fearing they will harm the recipients. However, a national study chaired by a Johns Hopkins kidney specialist suggests these fears may be unfounded.

In medical chart reviews of 2,430 kidneys transplanted from 1,298 donors—585 (24 percent) of them with AKI—researchers say they found no significant differences in rates of organ rejection among kidneys from deceased donors with or without AKI. They also report they found no evidence that factors such as the amount of time an organ is chilled and left without blood supply before transplantation had any impact on recipient outcomes for those who received AKI kidneys. 

Questions Answered:

• 0:01 What were the most important findings of the research?
• 3:17 Why is this research important to the field of medicine?
• 5:40 How could using deceased donor acute kidney injury kidneys for transplant change the way we practice medicine?
• 7:40 What's next in research for deceased kidney transplant donors with AKI?

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Chirag Parikh, MD, PhD

Director, Division of Nephrology

Dr. Parikh received his medical degree from Seth G.S. Medical College and KEM Hospital in Mumbai, India and subsequently completed his Nephrology fellowship and a PhD in Clinical Investigation at the University of Colorado Health Sciences ...

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