Can a cystic fibrosis patient give his organs for transplantation ?

Question

I would like to know if a cystic fibrosis patient can give his organs ?
I imagine the answer is no, because no one would like to receive organs with such a disease, but perhaps some organs less injured by CF could be given to save the life of someone.
Is it possible for a cystic fibrosis patient to give his body to the science?

Answer

Dear questioner,

It seems excluded to realize a transplantation with lungs or pancreas from cystic fibrosis patient.
For liver, lesions are present precociously (on NMR for example), without obvious clinic sign. So I don’t think it is conceivable to offer a liver graft. However, this case could be discussed according to the severity of the cystic fibrosis patient and the seriousness and the risk of death of the liver recipient.
CFTR, the protein which is involved in cystic fibrosis, is present in kidney and heart, but there is no sign of disease with these organ.
Nevertheless, I think it is better for a cystic fibrosis patient not to give his kidneys because of the toxicity of the frequent and multiple antibiotics with aminoglycosides he received.
Heart transplantation have been done with cystic fibrosis heart in case of “domino” graft. The cystic fibrosis patient was transplanted with heart and lung graft for a technical reason, and his own heart given to another receiver. This case is extremely rare because of the team transplantation reserve to use a heart from infected patient and because of logistic difficulty to do that.

For your question about the body gift to the science, there is to my knowledge no specific demand for cystic fibrosis research. It is possible to give your body as everybody but this act will not help particularly cystic fibrosis research

Sincerely yours

Dr Isabelle Danner-Boucher

11.01.2011