Kidney and Kidney-Pancreas Transplants

The Ochsner kidney and kidney-pancreas transplant team provide truly multidisciplinary care. Our team consists of surgeons, transplant nephrologists, certified transplant coordinators, social workers, nurse coordinators, pharmacists and financial counselors who all ensure every patient gets every aspect of their care addressed.

Additionally, we work with providers in other disciplines across Ochsner to provide care for conditions outside of the transplant, including:

• Cardiology

• Endocrinology

• Hematology

• Infectious disease

• Oncology

• Rheumatology

• Vascular medicine

Ochsner offers kidney transplants and kidney-pancreas transplants at the Ochsner Transplant Institute located at Ochsner Medical Center - New Orleans.

Virtual preoperative and postoperative consultations are available for established patients.

If your kidneys stop working like they are supposed to, you have kidney failure. This condition cannot be cured, but it can be managed with dialysis or a kidney transplant. Health conditions that can cause kidney failure include:

• Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes

• High blood pressure (hypertension)

• Glomerulonephritis — a condition that causes scar tissue to build up in the part of the kidney that filters waste and extra fluid

• Polycystic kidney disease — cysts develop in the kidneys, eventually causing the kidneys to lose function

Some medical conditions can increase your risk of kidney failure, including:

• Chronic kidney infections

• Kidney stones

• Lupus

• Obesity

• Untreated strep infections

People with Type 1 diabetes are usually the recipients of a kidney-pancreas transplant. However, in certain cases, the procedure may be considered for patients with Type 2 diabetes.

The Ochsner Living Donor Kidney Program provides patients with faster access to life-saving transplants. Living kidney donations reduce or even eliminate waiting times, so patients can receive a transplant before beginning dialysis or experiencing further health decline. About 30% of kidney transplants at Ochsner come from living donors, showcasing this program's vital role in offering hope and saving lives.

If you’re interested in becoming a living donor, complete the online health questionnaire or contact our team at KidneyLivingDonor@ochsner.org.

Learn more about Ochsner’s Living Donor Kidney program.

If you are not a match for your intended recipient, Ochsner offers the kidney paired exchange program.

During a paired exchange, which is a national kidney swap program, your evaluation and surgery are still done at Ochsner. You will offer your kidney to someone in the country waiting for a kidney transplant. In return, the person you tried to donate a kidney to gets a kidney that matches them.

Your kidney is sent to the transplant center where the person getting your kidney is being transplanted, and a kidney that matches your family member or friend is shipped to Ochsner for their transplant.

During a pancreas transplant, a person whose pancreas isn’t working appropriately receives a healthy pancreas from a donor.

The main reason for pancreas transplant is diabetes, mainly Type 1 diabetes. When a person has Type 1 diabetes, the pancreas either doesn’t produce insulin or doesn’t produce enough insulin (a hormone that regulates blood sugar), and the patient is dependent on insulin injections. A pancreas transplant allows the new pancreas to produce enough insulin to control blood sugar levels without insulin injections and prevent diabetes from getting worse or causing additional complications.

In most cases, the pancreas is transplanted alongside a kidney transplant. However, there are two other forms of pancreas transplant:

• Pancreas transplant alone — This procedure, which transplants the pancreas alone, is performed on patients with diabetes who have good kidney function but have problems controlling blood sugar levels or experience other diabetic complications despite good medical management.
• Pancreas transplant after kidney transplantation — In this case, the pancreas transplant is performed after the patient has received a kidney transplant, usually from a living donor. This surgery is an option for patients who still have diabetes after their kidney transplant and are exposed to the progressive complications of diabetes.

We understand that transplants don’t just affect the patient. That’s why we offer resources to support families throughout the process:

Support groups

• The transplant social workers lead several support groups to assist and educate patients and families with various transplant issues. These support groups meet at Ochsner Medical Center - New Orleans on Jefferson Highway.

For more information on support groups and meeting dates, contact our social workers at 504-842-3925.

The Brent House Hotel

• On-site lodging is available at the Brent House Hotel, our full-service hotel located on the Ochsner Medical Center campus. For reservations or information call 800-535-3986 or visit the Brent House Hotel website.

Interpreter services

• Interpreter services are available for all languages, including American Sign Language for the deaf or hard of hearing, for all aspects of your care and treatment with us, at no charge to the patient. These services are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The interpreter may be a face-to-face interpreter, an over-the-phone interpreter or a video remote interpreter. During all other times, the hospital phone operators act as a liaison to access interpreter services.

For more information on interpreter services, call 504-842-1717 or e-mail languageservices@ochsner.org.

Prescription Assistance Programs (PAPs)

• We offer assistance with prescription costs through pharmaceutical programs. Talk to your social worker or transplant coordinator right away if you are struggling to keep up with your medicine costs. Some pharmaceutical companies have programs that may help pay for medicines for people who qualify and are underinsured or uninsured.

The Ochsner Transplant Institute provides consistent follow-up information to all referring physicians via written correspondence. You’ll be kept abreast of initial clinic visits, surgery, hospital discharge and routine follow-up visits to the clinic. After surgery, our team continues to monitor for transplant-related complications and regulates maintenance immunosuppression.

Patients can be referred by sending an efax to refkidneytx@ochsner.org, calling 504-842-3925, faxing over referrals to 504-842-3343 or by emailing referrals to KidneyTransplant@Ochsner.org.

It’s important to do everything your doctor tells you to do, such as taking your medications as prescribed. But you also need to keep up with your routine medical care while you are waiting for a transplant. If you are not up to date on screenings for breast cancer, cervical cancer or colon cancer, you will be delayed from going on the transplant list.

Yes. Ochsner offers other multi-organ transplants including liver-kidney and heart-kidney.