1.2000
#27
THE ECONOMICS OF INCOMPATIBLE KIDNEY TRANSPLANTS: A LABORATORY ASSESSMENT.
John M. Hart, MBA,CHS, Inessa Kaplan, MS, Brigitte Reeb, Robert A. Montgomery, MD/PhD, Andrea A. Zachary, PhD and Mary S. Leffell, PhD. Baltimore MD, USA, Johns Hopkins University, 21205, Department of Medicine and Baltimore MD, USA, Johns Hopkins University, 21205, Department of Surgery.

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The Incompatible Kidney Transplant Program (InKTP) at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions provides transplant options to highly sensitized and/or ABO incompatible renal patients who previously were thought to be un-transplantable. Initially, the high cost of the clinical treatments and additional laboratory charges needed to bring a patient to transplant were thought to be an economic deterrent, despite the growing need to transplant this sector of patients. We compared the charges for laboratory testing to support the InKTP program with the laboratory charges incurred by patients waiting for a deceased donor as well as the laboratory charges incurred by patients receiving a living donor (LD) transplant to determine the financial impact of the InKTP protocols. Additionally we reviewed patient waiting times to transplant and post transplant monitoring charges. 92 InKTP patients, 100 deceased donor recipients and 100 living donor recipients were reviewed in this study. Laboratory charges were 16% lower for InKTP patients vs. deceased donor recipients, with LD recipients having the lowest charges. Deceased donor and LD charges included donor search and compatibility testing charges. InKTP charges included donor search and compatibility testing as well as post transplant monitoring. Preliminary projections indicate that deceased donor recipients wait an average of 5 times longer for a transplant than either InKTP patients or LD recipients. These results indicate that the InKTP program is economically viable as a transplant option.