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Why Choose Organ Donation
You may be hesitant to sign up as an organ donor because you don't know how it works. Dr. Lyle Burdine, transplant surgeon, discusses how organ donation works for living and deceased donors.
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Learn more about Lyle Burdine, MD, PhD
Lyle Burdine, MD, PhD
Dr. Burdine is a transplant surgeon and Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery. Dr. Burdine received his MD degree from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. During that time he also obtained his PhD degree in the Center for Biomedical Inventions under Tom Kodadek Ph.D. He graduated AOA from UTSW and completed general surgery at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.Learn more about Lyle Burdine, MD, PhD
Transcription:
Why Choose Organ Donation
Scott Vyverman (Host): So, how exactly do you become an organ donor and why is it so important for more of us to consider organ donation? Let’s talk to Dr. Lyle Burdine, a Transplant Surgeon at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
This is UAMS Health Talk from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. I’m Scott Webb. Dr. Burdine, thanks for joining me today. Talk about the importance of becoming an organ donor. Why is it so important for more of us to become donors?
Lyle Burdine, MD, PhD (Guest): Yeah, thanks for having me on Scott. I appreciate it. Yeah, organ donation is extremely important. I mean for example, we have about 125,000 people on the wait list right now that need organs and right now, we’re doing about 27,000 organ transplants a year across the country. So, there’s a big gap there. Most of it is on the kidney side. And we have an organ shortage. So, one way to fix that is to have as many people as possible be organ donors and the organs that are donated are really gifts and they’re lifesaving and they are oftentimes the only good thing that comes out of perhaps a tragic situation.
Host: I assumed that there was a gap, but I had no idea that it was that big. Let’s talk about being a living donor. What exactly does that mean and what’s the process like for people?
Dr. Burdine: So, living donations is extremely an important mechanism to increase the organ pool. In different parts of the world, for example in Japan and Korea, that’s really the only donation method. They don’t participate in decreased donations. And to be a living donor, you are really a hero. And basically, I think anybody that’s in really good health, should consider it. It’s an excellent opportunity to help out a loved one or even somebody you don’t know.
Host: Doctor, when I think about the possibility of becoming a living donor, maybe it’s just me, or maybe other people go through this; but I think well while I’m healthy today, what if I need that thing tomorrow? What if I need that kidney somewhere down the line? Is that just me not really understanding the process?
Dr. Burdine: I’ll say this, that the living donor selection process is very, very rigid. About one in ten people end up qualifying. So, when you get worked up to be a living donor, they look at is there any chance whatsoever of you needing or having kidney problems or liver problems down the road. And it’s been studied well enough that you can with almost certainty say there’s less than .01 percent chance that you’ll end up needing both your kidneys or you’re going to have liver problems down the road if you are a donor. So, the point is that it’s very stringent and we only select people that we’re confident can withstand living with one kidney or having the operation to be a living liver donor.
Host: Doctor thanks so much for that information and I may not sign up tomorrow to be a living donor; but it does help to have the information and I think what we’re really talking about here is the misconceptions about organ donation. For example, do people have to pay to be organ donors?
Dr. Burdine: No and in fact, they don’t. And we’ve been – the community as a whole has been working to reduce any financial barriers that there may be to being a donor, for example living donors having to take time off work or having to sort of travel or move or testing. There’s been legislation that is in place to sort of make sure that they are compensated for all that. And then as far as deceased donation goes, there is obviously no charge and it’s part of the hospital care if somebody has elected prior to that time to being a deceased donor.
Host: Doctor, I know this is a little bit outside your specialty, but marrow donation is probably a big consideration for people. Many people think about the organs, the kidneys, the livers, but what about marrow donation?
Dr. Burdine: I do know that it’s very hard sometimes for people that need a bone marrow transplant to find an appropriate donor so they need to search a wider pool of donors than you might need to for a liver or a kidney. So, I think that with respect to bone marrow donation, people really need to think about it because a lot of times you are going to help maybe a kid that needs a stem cell transplant or needs a bone marrow transplant and they have a hard time finding donors.
Host: I think I understand. They need to cast a wider net when it comes to marrow donation or stem cells. So, for recipients that are on the wait list, how do they get on the list, how long can they expect to be on the list, and really, what can they expect?
Dr. Burdine: Well, I think the patient populations I work with primarily kidney and liver, it’s a little bit different. The liver wait list is really dependent upon how sick somebody is. And it seems counterintuitive but the sicker somebody gets, with waiting on a liver transplant, the higher they go on the list. And so it’s just – we try to keep patients as healthy as possible for as long as possible but when they do start to get sick; there’s a pretty good chance they are going to get a liver transplant in time.
Now with kidneys, the main thing is just time on dialysis, and it varies slightly across the country. But if you are in a common blood group such as O, you could be waiting a few years. And the one thing that recipients will notice or tell me about is that after transplant, they feel like they’ve just gotten a huge chunk of their life back because they’re not on dialysis either every night doing PD dialysis, or they are not on hemodialysis for four hours a day three times a week with the – dealing with the after effects of dialysis. So, they really feel like they’ve kind of gotten their life back and they’re very, very grateful.
Host: Okay Doctor, so let’s say I need a transplant. Should I go to my relatives first and should they take my call? How do you find out if a relative is a match? How can they get involved? How does that work?
Dr. Burdine: For recipients, it is good to ask for help and to see if anybody would be willing to be a living donor for you. And they need to just contact the local transplant center. Here at UAMS we contact our living donor program coordinator and anybody wishing to be a donor could begin the workup process. Now a lot of people don’t have that as an option; that’s fine. They just need to sort of get on the transplant list, do everything the docs tell them to do and try to get the surgery done.
Host: That’s great to know that there’s a direct contact at UAMS that people can reach out to. So, here’s perhaps the easiest question of the day. How exactly do you sign up to be an organ donor?
Dr. Burdine: Probably the standard and most common way people do it is when they are getting their driver’s license and they can elect to be an organ donor at that time. In the United States, we have an opt in system as opposed to some of the European countries where you are an organ donor unless you opt out. So, when they are getting their driver’s license or registering, I would strongly encourage them to think about becoming an organ donor because it’s a chance to save up to eight people’s lives with depending on what organs you can donate.
Now there’s other ways you can go online to www.organdonor.gov and there’s a registry there that you can get on that way.
Host: Dr. Burdine, you’ve been a wealth of information today. I’ve really enjoyed this. Very helpful, very informative. Before we wrap things up, I want to give you an opportunity, any final thoughts, any last things you want everyone to know about organ donation.
Dr. Burdine: So, a couple of things. One, as I mentioned before, there’s a huge organ shortage and the only way we are going to beat that is to improve our research, so come up with better drugs, techniques and organ preservation methods. So, support the biomedical research. It’s oftentimes a long ways off and it seems kind of remote but it’s really the foundation upon which organ transplantation is possible.
And the other thing I would just say is that in the state of Arkansas, we do a pretty good job. Our organ donation rate is about 60% but it can always be better and so if you’re enthusiastic about organ donation, please encourage your friend and family to sign up and be an organ donor.
Host: Absolutely, sign up indeed. Dr. Burdine, thanks again for your time today. I think to sum things up, we need more organs and those who donate are heroes. For more information on organ donation please visit www.uams.edu. And if you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels and check out the full podcast library for additional topics that may interest you. This is UAMS Health Talk. Thanks for listening.
Why Choose Organ Donation
Scott Vyverman (Host): So, how exactly do you become an organ donor and why is it so important for more of us to consider organ donation? Let’s talk to Dr. Lyle Burdine, a Transplant Surgeon at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
This is UAMS Health Talk from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. I’m Scott Webb. Dr. Burdine, thanks for joining me today. Talk about the importance of becoming an organ donor. Why is it so important for more of us to become donors?
Lyle Burdine, MD, PhD (Guest): Yeah, thanks for having me on Scott. I appreciate it. Yeah, organ donation is extremely important. I mean for example, we have about 125,000 people on the wait list right now that need organs and right now, we’re doing about 27,000 organ transplants a year across the country. So, there’s a big gap there. Most of it is on the kidney side. And we have an organ shortage. So, one way to fix that is to have as many people as possible be organ donors and the organs that are donated are really gifts and they’re lifesaving and they are oftentimes the only good thing that comes out of perhaps a tragic situation.
Host: I assumed that there was a gap, but I had no idea that it was that big. Let’s talk about being a living donor. What exactly does that mean and what’s the process like for people?
Dr. Burdine: So, living donations is extremely an important mechanism to increase the organ pool. In different parts of the world, for example in Japan and Korea, that’s really the only donation method. They don’t participate in decreased donations. And to be a living donor, you are really a hero. And basically, I think anybody that’s in really good health, should consider it. It’s an excellent opportunity to help out a loved one or even somebody you don’t know.
Host: Doctor, when I think about the possibility of becoming a living donor, maybe it’s just me, or maybe other people go through this; but I think well while I’m healthy today, what if I need that thing tomorrow? What if I need that kidney somewhere down the line? Is that just me not really understanding the process?
Dr. Burdine: I’ll say this, that the living donor selection process is very, very rigid. About one in ten people end up qualifying. So, when you get worked up to be a living donor, they look at is there any chance whatsoever of you needing or having kidney problems or liver problems down the road. And it’s been studied well enough that you can with almost certainty say there’s less than .01 percent chance that you’ll end up needing both your kidneys or you’re going to have liver problems down the road if you are a donor. So, the point is that it’s very stringent and we only select people that we’re confident can withstand living with one kidney or having the operation to be a living liver donor.
Host: Doctor thanks so much for that information and I may not sign up tomorrow to be a living donor; but it does help to have the information and I think what we’re really talking about here is the misconceptions about organ donation. For example, do people have to pay to be organ donors?
Dr. Burdine: No and in fact, they don’t. And we’ve been – the community as a whole has been working to reduce any financial barriers that there may be to being a donor, for example living donors having to take time off work or having to sort of travel or move or testing. There’s been legislation that is in place to sort of make sure that they are compensated for all that. And then as far as deceased donation goes, there is obviously no charge and it’s part of the hospital care if somebody has elected prior to that time to being a deceased donor.
Host: Doctor, I know this is a little bit outside your specialty, but marrow donation is probably a big consideration for people. Many people think about the organs, the kidneys, the livers, but what about marrow donation?
Dr. Burdine: I do know that it’s very hard sometimes for people that need a bone marrow transplant to find an appropriate donor so they need to search a wider pool of donors than you might need to for a liver or a kidney. So, I think that with respect to bone marrow donation, people really need to think about it because a lot of times you are going to help maybe a kid that needs a stem cell transplant or needs a bone marrow transplant and they have a hard time finding donors.
Host: I think I understand. They need to cast a wider net when it comes to marrow donation or stem cells. So, for recipients that are on the wait list, how do they get on the list, how long can they expect to be on the list, and really, what can they expect?
Dr. Burdine: Well, I think the patient populations I work with primarily kidney and liver, it’s a little bit different. The liver wait list is really dependent upon how sick somebody is. And it seems counterintuitive but the sicker somebody gets, with waiting on a liver transplant, the higher they go on the list. And so it’s just – we try to keep patients as healthy as possible for as long as possible but when they do start to get sick; there’s a pretty good chance they are going to get a liver transplant in time.
Now with kidneys, the main thing is just time on dialysis, and it varies slightly across the country. But if you are in a common blood group such as O, you could be waiting a few years. And the one thing that recipients will notice or tell me about is that after transplant, they feel like they’ve just gotten a huge chunk of their life back because they’re not on dialysis either every night doing PD dialysis, or they are not on hemodialysis for four hours a day three times a week with the – dealing with the after effects of dialysis. So, they really feel like they’ve kind of gotten their life back and they’re very, very grateful.
Host: Okay Doctor, so let’s say I need a transplant. Should I go to my relatives first and should they take my call? How do you find out if a relative is a match? How can they get involved? How does that work?
Dr. Burdine: For recipients, it is good to ask for help and to see if anybody would be willing to be a living donor for you. And they need to just contact the local transplant center. Here at UAMS we contact our living donor program coordinator and anybody wishing to be a donor could begin the workup process. Now a lot of people don’t have that as an option; that’s fine. They just need to sort of get on the transplant list, do everything the docs tell them to do and try to get the surgery done.
Host: That’s great to know that there’s a direct contact at UAMS that people can reach out to. So, here’s perhaps the easiest question of the day. How exactly do you sign up to be an organ donor?
Dr. Burdine: Probably the standard and most common way people do it is when they are getting their driver’s license and they can elect to be an organ donor at that time. In the United States, we have an opt in system as opposed to some of the European countries where you are an organ donor unless you opt out. So, when they are getting their driver’s license or registering, I would strongly encourage them to think about becoming an organ donor because it’s a chance to save up to eight people’s lives with depending on what organs you can donate.
Now there’s other ways you can go online to www.organdonor.gov and there’s a registry there that you can get on that way.
Host: Dr. Burdine, you’ve been a wealth of information today. I’ve really enjoyed this. Very helpful, very informative. Before we wrap things up, I want to give you an opportunity, any final thoughts, any last things you want everyone to know about organ donation.
Dr. Burdine: So, a couple of things. One, as I mentioned before, there’s a huge organ shortage and the only way we are going to beat that is to improve our research, so come up with better drugs, techniques and organ preservation methods. So, support the biomedical research. It’s oftentimes a long ways off and it seems kind of remote but it’s really the foundation upon which organ transplantation is possible.
And the other thing I would just say is that in the state of Arkansas, we do a pretty good job. Our organ donation rate is about 60% but it can always be better and so if you’re enthusiastic about organ donation, please encourage your friend and family to sign up and be an organ donor.
Host: Absolutely, sign up indeed. Dr. Burdine, thanks again for your time today. I think to sum things up, we need more organs and those who donate are heroes. For more information on organ donation please visit www.uams.edu. And if you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels and check out the full podcast library for additional topics that may interest you. This is UAMS Health Talk. Thanks for listening.