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The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:
The spokesperson for Prince of Wales Hospital (PWH) made the following announcement today (August 27) regarding a case of organ donation and transplantation:
A patient suffering from acute stroke passed away in PWH on August 25 despite resuscitation. The deceased's family gave consent to donate the kidneys, liver, heart and lungs. Hospitals concerned were informed and they proceeded to identify suitable patients for organ transplants.
A series of examinations including bronchoscopy, serology test, chest X-ray, renal ultrasound, urinalysis, echocardiogram and coronary angiogram were conducted according to the established protocol for brain stem death patients. Results were reviewed and the organs were considered suitable for donation.
The organ harvesting operations began at around 9am on August 26. Based on the prevailing organ transplant procedures, doctors from Queen Mary Hospital (QMH) harvested the organs in the order of heart, lungs and liver. The organs were then transported to QMH immediately for subsequent transplantation to three patients.
At 2.55pm, when PWH doctors harvested the kidneys, a mass with a diameter of 1.5 centimetres was found on the posterior surface of the right kidney. The specimen was sent for urgent frozen section examination. The PWH organ donation co-ordinator concurrently informed the related transplant teams of the findings at 3pm. It was understood that the heart and lung transplants at QMH were in progress.
Frozen section examination results available at 3.30pm confirmed the specimen as renal cell carcinoma. The transplant teams concerned were notified immediately. After thorough assessment, it was decided not to carry out kidney transplantation. The QMH liver team also decided not to use the liver for transplantation according to risk assessment.
QMH has explained to the families of the two heart and lung recipients the risks and follow-up plans. The patients will be closely monitored, and necessary examinations will be arranged. The hospital will also closely follow up on their disease prognoses.
Early renal cell carcinoma does not come with obvious symptoms. It is usually found out incidentally during other examinations. Thorough investigations on the donor and recipients had been performed before the transplant operations according to the established guidelines to assess the condition of the organs, recipients' clinical condition and overall risks. Explanations were given to the recipients and their family regarding all the known risks, including that the donor may have some asymptomatic diseases, and that there may be a window period of infections or endured time is required for tests, making pre-transplant diagnosis of all occult diseases not feasible. The operations were performed after obtaining the informed consent from the respective patients.
According to local experience of organ transplants, it is very rare for transplant recipients to get cancer from a transplanted organ. For this case, the expert assessment is that the risk of renal cell carcinoma metastasis to other organs is extremely low, and it is highly unlikely to have an impact on the two recipients.
The hospital would like to express its gratitude to the donor's family once again for their generous act in supporting organ donation, which gives hope to patients in need. PWH has reported the case to the Hospital Authority Head Office via the Advance Incident Reporting System.
Ends/Thursday, August 27, 2015
Issued at HKT 19:29
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