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SINGAPORE: Many have welcomed Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan's idea of removing the 60-year age limit on cadaveric kidneys. However, the impact of the proposed amendment on the kidney transplant waiting list is not yet known.
25-year-old Rogayah Mahmud has had kidney failure for seven years. For the last two years, she has been on the waiting list for a kidney transplant.
"Since there is no one within our age group who is willing to donate, we have no choice but to push the age limit for 60 years and above," she said.
Removing the age limit of donors will help, said kidney specialists, but they warned that it would not result in a flood of kidneys for transplant.
The Human Organ Transplant Act (HOTA) was amended in 2004 to allow healthy organs to be taken from all brain-dead patients, not just accident victims.
However, the number of kidney transplants from cadaveric donors only rose from 20 to about 50 cases a year. Older donors may also have more medical problems.
Dr Pary Sivaraman, a kidney specialist, said: "We may be getting kidneys that are not (of) good quality. In some places, they will tell the recipient that the kidney is coming from a not-so-good source and the recipient has the option to accept the kidney or not. Whether we would have that in place is difficult to say."
Dr Pary said a recipient normally receives just one kidney from a cadaveric donor, so that two people from the waiting list can benefit.
But if the quality of the kidney is not so good, then one option is to transplant both kidneys into just one patient or transplant older kidneys into older patients.
The Ministry of Health said the existing kidney allocation system will continue to be followed. However, there may be a need to refine the system to ensure that very old kidneys do not end up with very young recipients.
- CNA/so
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