May 02,
2007
THE kidney could hardly be considered a properly functioning one -
it came from a patient who had tested positive for
hepatitisB.
And yet, urologist Makoto Mannami had it transplanted into one of
his patients.
The man who received the kidney at Uwajima Municipal Hospital in
Uwajima, Ehime Prefecture, Japan, later became infected with the
virus, reported Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun.
As a result, he died of liver failure and acute pancreatitis, the
hospital's inspection committee announced on Sunday.
The committee had been investigating a series of questionable
transplants conducted by Dr Mannami since the 1990s, reported The
Japan Times.
According to a report released by the panel, the man was one of two
recipients of the kidneys taken from a woman who had tested
positive for hepatitis B in December 2000.
The male recipient died about five months after the transplant. The
other recipient has not been infected with the virus so far and is
still alive, the panel said.
The deceased man tested negative for the virus before the
transplant but was found to be positive shortly before his death,
it said.
HARSH WORDS
Committee chairman Katashi Fukao, strongly criticised the
transplants.
Said Mr Fukao: 'It was highly likely that the recipient got
infected (with the hepatitis B virus) through the transplant.
'The transplant was fundamentally reckless and cannot be regarded
as treatment.'
The report also concluded that all 20 cases in which diseased
kidneys were removed for transplant by Dr Mannami, and 25 cases in
which diseased kidneys were transplanted, were inappropriate.
Said Mr Fukao: 'The patient was an innocent victim of a transplant
of a kidney that rarely functioned from the beginning. It was a
transplant that should never have been carried out.'
Dr Mannami, 66, now a senior urologist at the Uwajima Tokushukai
Hospital, said he thought infection would not occur at the time of
the transplant.
He also said the patient died of severe pancreatitis, and insisted
that the liver damage had no direct link to his death.
The controversy has prompted Japan's health ministry to review its
guidelines on transplants of kidneys from sick patients.
Currently, transplants of kidneys harvested from dead donors who
had cancer or hepatitisB are banned in Japan. However, there are no
written rules concerning transplants from living donors.
In Singapore, doctors routinely screen donors for illnesses like
hepatitis B and C, sexually transmitted diseases and HIV.
The Ministry of Health also introduced a formalised checklist of
screenings and tests to be done on all potential donors in late
2003.
It covers dengue testing as well as the cause of any brain damage
and checks for a history of cancer or recent suggestive symptoms.
Any cancer, except primary brain cancer, automatically rules out a
transplant