Pittsburgh, PA, September 12, 2011–A proposed change in the way intestinal organs are allocated could increase access to those organs for people awaiting transplantation, according to a UPMC surgeon who is leading efforts to change federal rules.
The proposal affects people who are waiting for a combined liver-intestine transplant, a type of procedure that has sharply declined in frequency since 2008.
Surgeons attribute the drop in the combined surgeries to a federal rule that requires livers to be offered to every patient on the national waiting list. Doing so pushes down the list about 70 adults nationwide who are waiting for a combined liver-intestine transplant during any given year.