UW Health surgeons perform transplant procedures working with living donors for kidney transplants. Advantages to living donation include a scheduled procedure, better conditions for the surgery, improved patient survival and better long-term function of the transplanted organ.

 

As of May 6, 2011, there were nearly 1,500 individuals on the waiting list for a kidney transplant in the state of Wisconsin and more than 90,000 in the nation, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS).

Due to the length of the kidney waiting list, the waiting period for a deceased donor kidney can be several years. Thus, having a living donor can decrease a patient's waiting time for a kidney transplant, allowing them to avoid or discontinue dialysis earlier. This will also help reduce the number of patients on the national waitlist and allow other patients who may not have a living donor option available to them to receive a deceased donor kidney quicker.

 

Although most of us are born with two kidneys, only one working kidney is needed to sustain life. This allows a healthy person the opportunity to donate a kidney to someone with kidney failure.
 

Living organ donors fall in one of two categories:
 
Direct Donation: The living donor knows the organ recipient and wants to donate directly to that person. This is the most prevalent form of donation and consists primarily of relatives or close friends of the organ recipient. Transplants involving relatives have proven to be the most successful over time because of the blood relationship between donor and patient. Donors must be healthy and match the recipient's blood type and antigens. If they do not match each other, donors and recipients can enroll in the kidney exchange program.

Non-Directed, Altruistic or Humanitarian Donation: The living donor does not know the organ recipient. The donor may choose to donate to the next person they match at a specific transplant center or can participate in a paired-exchange or kidney chain donation through the kidney exchange program.
 

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