Carilion Clinic on Monday announced plans to launch an adult kidney transplant program at its Roanoke Memorial Hospital. It would be the first organ transplant service to be offered at Carilion and the first in Western Virginia.
Pending state approval, a tentative start date has been set for October.
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There are about 5,000 people in Southwest Virginia with advanced kidney disease, more than any other region in the state, said Dr. David Salzberg, general surgeon and director of metabolic and bariatric surgery at Roanoke Memorial.
When kidneys function poorly, the patient is eventually put on dialysis, a procedure that diverts blood to a machine, which then removes waste products and excess fluid from the body. Dialysis is time-consuming — patients must either visit a center or, in some cases, perform a procedure at home three times a week for three- to four-hour sessions — and is one of the most expensive treatments a hospital can support, Salzberg said.