Johns Hopkins physicians report an extraordinarily high success rate for kidney transplants among patients traditionally considered ineligible for the surgery.

Many patients in need of kidney transplants are sensitized to immune system proteins and antibodies because of previous transplants, blood transfusions or pregnancies. The Hopkins team used a blood filtering process called plasmapheresis coupled with a drug that suppresses immune system antibodies to stop these patients from making antibodies that attack transplant organs and cause their rejection.

After the new treatment, a majority of 34 patients treated at Hopkins since 1997 stopped producing antibodies against their donors' HLA antigens, the targets of rejection, and maintained that status for an average of 13 months post-transplant. Most organ rejection occurs during the first three months following surgery.

"I've been in this business 30 years, and I've never seen anything like these results," says Andrea A. Zachary, lead author of the antibody study and associate professor of medicine at Hopkins. "If we can stop the production of antibodies against the donor organ permanently, better long-term survival of donated kidneys and patients would be likely."

Zachary presented the study results on Aug. 26 at the Transplantation Society's 19th International Congress, held in Miami.