Novel Cooling Device for the Elimination of Warm Ischemia During Renal Transplantation

Warm ischemia can damage a renal allograft in many different ways often leading to early failure of the kidney transplant and sometimes even death of the transplant recipient. For this reason every effort is made to keep the allograft cold during the removal and transportation, and protocols have been developed to ensure this. Although kidneys are kept below 5°C during transportation, they re-warm rapidly during the transplant surgery. On average, kidneys are exposed to 40 or more minutes of dangerously warm temperatures during transplant surgery.

To avoid damage, it is important to reduce the amount of time it is exposed to warm temperatures. Currently, there are no devices or standardized protocols available to ensure a kidney stays cold during the transplant surgery.

The Principal Investigator has developed Kidney Skinn, a device that may control the temperature of the renal allograft during transplant surgery; keeping allograft temperatures at or below 5°C for at least 60 minutes. If found effective, this could eliminate warm ischemia and potentially prevent damage to transplanted kidneys. The device may also potentially provide retraction and support for the kidney during the transplant operation, making the surgery easier to perform. Additionally, the device may be found to be easily removed once the transplant is complete.

A previous study was conducted with the Kidney Skinn in animals; the next step is to investigate whether the device can perform in the human clinical setting. This study will be done in 2 steps. Part A: a series of consecutive consenting patients to determine device initial safety, and Part B: a single-centre randomized-controlled pilot study of kidney transplant recipients.