Edinburgh joins new multimillion-pound network set to revolutionise kidney transplants and enable more life-changing surgeries
Edinburgh transplant experts will play a key role in a new clinical network launched to increase the use of technology that gives surgeons vital extra time to check the health of donated kidneys – paving the way for more life-changing transplants.
Clinicians at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh and researchers at the University of Edinburgh will play key role in a new £5.2 million PERFUSE-UK network, funded by the Stoneygate Trust and Kidney Research UK. The network will connect Edinburgh with the central hub in Cambridge and other transplant centres in London, Oxford and Newcastle to use and develop a technique called normothermic machine perfusion (NMP) to boost transplant rates.
In July the latest annual NHS figures revealed that almost 500 people are now waiting for a kidney transplant in Scotland, a 13% increase on those waiting in 2024[1]. Every week, six people in the UK die while waiting for a kidney transplant.
Currently, the majority of kidneys from deceased donors are stored and transported via cold storage before being transplanted into recipients. This keeps the kidney alive but once cut off from blood circulation it can quickly become damaged. NMP enables surgical teams to circulate warmed oxygenated fluid into a donated kidney using a machine pump, preserving it better and giving clinicians more time to assess its suitability for transplant.
Every year, more than 300 kidneys from deceased donors are found to be unsuitable for transplant across the UK, [2] but around 80% of these could be healthy enough for perfusion treatment, which could lead to them becoming approved for transplant.
The funding for PERFUSE-UK will enable medical teams in the five centres to use and develop NMP for five years, but it is hoped that once rolled out across the NHS in the future, the technique could see up to 70% of perfused kidneys go on to be transplanted.
The long-term aim of PERFUSE-UK is to define new national standards to roll out and embed NMP into clinical settings across the NHS, ensuring more patients can benefit from life-changing transplants.
PERFUSE-UK sites will also use NMP for clinical research, enabling scientists to test new drugs and therapeutic techniques that could lead to the optimisation and repair of donated kidneys, to prevent post-transplant organ rejection and help donated organs last longer.
Earlier this year, NHS Blood and Transplant launched a pilot programme of Assessment and Recovery Centres (ARCs), which uses NMP for donated livers, lungs and kidneys, using a centralised model for the distribution of organs.
The PERFUSE-UK network complements that pioneering scheme, using the same technology and principles, but the NMP technique will be used “in-house” on kidneys donated and transplanted at the same hospital site.
David Crosby, chief research officer at Kidney Research UK said:
“Every day 24 people start treatment for kidney failure and six people die every week while waiting for a transplant. A transplant isn’t a cure, but we consistently hear from kidney patients how desperate everyone on that waiting list is to receive the call that could change their life.
“A transplant is also more cost effective than dialysis treatment and while patients will always be at the heart of everything we do, we cannot ignore the potential cost-saving to our already overstretched NHS.
“Through PERFUSE-UK we will stand by the side of kidney patients across the UK, driving real clinical action, making more kidneys available for transplant, and researching techniques that can make them last for longer.
"It is thanks to the continued generosity of the Stoneygate Trust and our supporters that we are able fund this work.”
Mr Andrew Sutherland, consultant transplant surgeon at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh and honorary senior lecturer at the University of Edinburgh, said: PERFUSE-UK will enable us to bring much needed innovation to kidney transplantation, supporting more time for decision making around which organs are used and supporting us to develop new ways to enhance the condition and long-term function of donated kidneys for the future. This is an important step forward for the kidney transplant community, but most importantly for our patients.”
50-year-old Stuart Rose, a former executive chef in Edinburgh, spent nearly six years having dialysis to keep him alive while he waited for a suitable kidney to become available for transplantation, after lupus caused his kidneys to fail in 2019.
“I couldn’t believe it when I had to start treatment - you never expect something like this to happen to you. Being on dialysis was difficult to juggle alongside work and held my family back from so many things we should have been doing together. Holidays just weren’t a possibility when I needed to be attached to a dialysis machine multiple times every week.
“Every kidney that can be made available means somebody spending less time on dialysis - or even avoiding that treatment completely. That is priceless to kidney patients.”
Sir Will Adderley, founder of the Stoneygate Trust said: “Funding medical research is about believing in the future and the potential it holds. Stoneygate Trust are excited to support the creation of PERFUSE-UK. This builds on years of groundbreaking research focussed on the development of transplant techniques funded by the trust. I’m confident this latest phase will help deliver real change for the patients who need it most.”
In addition to funding PERFUSE-UK, The Stoneygate Trust in partnership with Kidney Research UK will continue their ongoing funding programmes to accelerate kidney transplant science, with £1million of funding being made available this autumn for further innovative research.
Named in honour of the pioneer of NMP, the Professor Michael Nicholson Awards have already funded 26 kidney transplant research projects and starting with £1 million in October, the partnership has committed to a further three years of funding in this vital area.