About Paired Donation

Many patients in need of a kidney transplant have individuals in their lives willing to donate a kidney, only to discover that their friend or loved one cannot donate to them because they are not a compatible match. The Paired Kidney Donation program is offered to patients who have donors that do not match their blood type or who cannot accept a kidney from a donor because there is a strong chance they would reject the kidney. In this program, donor and recipient pairs are matched with other pairs in the same situation. When a 'pair' match is found, the donor from Pair 1 donates to the recipient from Pair 2, and the donor from Pair 2 donates to the recipient from Pair 1.

U-M computer software matches kidneys to hard-to-match recipients (YouTube Video)

Improving Access to Kidney Donations

The need for kidney transplantation has grown significantly over the past decade with over 76,502 patients 'on the list' awaiting a kidney transplant as of August 2008. Unfortunately, in the year 2007 only 10,587 kidney transplants were performed in the United States and 4,443 persons died waiting for a transplant. Because of a severe national organ shortage, alternative solutions for expanding organ availability have been sought. One potential solution is a Paired Kidney Donor exchange. We are pleased to announce that the University of Michigan Transplant Center now has a Paired Kidney Donation program designed to provide greater opportunity to patients in need of a kidney transplant.

Learning More

Any donor wishing to learn more or be enrolled in the Paired Kidney Donation program may contact our office at 734-763-4228, and ask to speak with Chad Abbott regarding the Paired Kidney Donation program.