New guidance from NICE recommends the use of two systems to maintain the condition of kidneys from deceased donors before they are used for transplants in the NHS. Before a transplant can take place, time is needed to match the kidney to the recipient, to transport and prepare the recipient and the kidney and finally to implant the kidney.
NICE recommends two options for storing kidneys from deceased donors:
· Machine perfusion using the LifePort kidney transporter, where preservation solution is continually pumped through the kidney during transportation.
· Cold static storage using Belzer UW storage solution or Marshall's hypertonic solution, where the kidney is filled the sterile preservation fluid and is kept on ice in a box.
The choice of storage method should take into account the clinical and logistical factors in both the kidney retrieval teams and the transplant centres.
