TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A Taiwanese man who received a kidney transplant celebrated the 50th anniversary of the procedure, making him the longest-lived kidney transplant patient in the country — and the age of the organ itself has reached 115 years.
National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH) Hsin-Chu Branch held a press conference on Wednesday (July 12) to mark the 50th anniversary of a patient surnamed Chen's (陳) kidney transplant in 1973, reported Liberty Times. Chen also just celebrated his 81st birthday.
Professor Tsai Meng-kun (蔡孟昆), deputy dean of the NTUH Hsin-Chu Branch and convener of the transplant team said that Li Chun-jen (李俊仁), a professor of surgery at NTUH, was a pioneer in kidney transplants. He attended Harvard University in the 1960s to study surgical metabolism and organ transplantation.
On May 27, 1968, he conducted the first kidney transplant on a living patient in Asia, opening a new page for organ transplantation in Taiwan. Lin conducted Chen's kidney transplant operation on July 11, 1973.
At the time, Chen was 31 years old, and he received the kidney from his 65-year-old mother. Now that 50 years have passed, the kidney is 115 years old, and its function is reportedly "still quite good."
Lin Hao-yu (林昊諭), a physician in the Department of Surgery at the NTUH Hsin-chu Branch, told the newspaper that the biggest difficulty after a kidney transplant is that the recipient's immune system could attack the foreign kidney, which is the so-called rejection phenomenon, causing the transplanted kidney to become damaged and lose its function.
Lin said that before transplantation, tissue pairing assessment is very important. Priority should be given to blood type compatibility, followed by white blood cell antigen matching.
Therefore, kidney transplantation between blood relatives is more advantageous, said Lin. Chen and his mother have the same blood type, and half of their white blood cell antigen genes match, according to Lin.
After the operation, Chen was also very cooperative in taking anti-rejection drugs and maintaining a regular lifestyle. Over the past 50 years, because he lives in Hsinchu, Chen has received regular check-ups at the NTUH Hsin-Chu Branch to this day, said Lin.