Country Workshops: Final Reports

Kidney transplantation offers patients with kidney failure an opportunity for a longer life and a chance of freedom from renal dialysis. Increasingly, however, highly sensitised patients are remaining on the transplant waiting list for a suitable organ. The screening and practice of transplantation of highly sensitised patients has evolved in tandem with increases in sensitivity of HLA antigen testing, helping to improve the matching of patients with donor organs. A manuscript published in the journal Transplant International explores the current state of knowledge around this issue and how innovation, immune-system manipulation, patient prioritisation schemes and ‘thinking outside the box’ is increasing the likelihood that highly sensitised patients might safely obtain a transplant. The full manuscript is available here: European Guidelines for Managing Patients with HLA Antibodies.

The working group, authors of the manuscript, composed of leading transplant healthcare professionals from around Europe, patient group representatives, and transplant coordinators, has undertaken a review of the literature in each of six key areas:

• Definition of sensitisation
• Comparison of practices across Europe
• Strategies for access to kidney transplantation for highly sensitised patients
• Desensitisation strategies
• Outcomes after HLA incompatible transplantation
• The place of kidney sharing schemes for sensitised patients

An algorithm for patients who are highly sensitised was developed, together with a series of recommendations.

As part of the dissemination activities, ESOT has organised 5 country specific workshops gathering transplant professionals interested in the topic with the aim to allow discussion of local practices, review of the Guidelines and plans for future work at a national and international level. Between the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023, five workshops have been organised in the following countries: United Kingdom, Italy, France, Denmark (targeted to Nordic Region countries), Austria (targeted to German speaking countries and Eastern European countries).

You can browse the final report of each Workshop here below.

Country Workshop	Date and city	Scientific Lead	Final report
United Kingdom	11 October 2022, Cardiff, United Kingdom	Sian Griffin
Italy	19 October 2022, Padova, Italy	Lucrezia Furian
France	30 November 2022, Paris, France	Christophe Legendre
Denmark (Nordic Region countries)	22 March 2023, Copenhagen, Denmark	Søren Schwartz Sørensen
Austria (German speaking countries and Eastern Europe countries)	14 April 2023, Vienna, Austria	Rainer Oberbauer

 

The workshop activities are kindly supported by 

More information and resources about HLA desensitisation and the management of Patients with HLA antibodies are available at this link.