Kidney Transplant Living Donors Program

The Living Kidney Donation program at UAB enables a healthy individual to donate a kidney to someone in need of a transplant – the surgical placement of a healthy human kidney into the body of a patient with kidney failure. Because of the lack of available deceased-donor organs, the Living Kidney Donation program helps to meet the growing need for organs among those awaiting a kidney transplant. A living donor may be a relative, spouse, or even a close friend of the recipient. To be considered as a living-kidney donor, you need to be in good health and without any history of high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, or other major illness. An inpatient, comprehensive renal donor evaluation is performed to determine if you are a suitable donor.

UAB has become a national leader in kidney transplantation since performing our program’s first kidney transplant in 1968. Currently, the UAB Renal Transplant Program is one of the three largest kidney transplant centers in the nation, performing more than 300 procedures each year. Our reputation for excellence is based on our highly skilled transplant surgeons, dedication to patient care and education, and exceptionally high patient survival rates. Moreover, our patients benefit from our long history of experience and achievement in kidney transplantation. Since 1987, UAB has performed more kidney transplants than any other kidney program in the United States, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing.

Regrettably, the availability of organs from deceased donors is not enough to meet the growing need of those awaiting a kidney transplant. For this reason, UAB offers the option of living-kidney donation. In fact, UAB and other transplant centers increasingly rely on living donation – the second source of transplanted kidneys – to meet the need of individuals with kidney failure. Currently, approximately half of the kidney transplants performed at UAB come from living donors. Our experience in performing kidney transplants with living donors ensures the highest level of care and better outcomes for our patients – both kidney donors and recipients.

In 2006, UAB became the first transplant center in the Southeast to pursue paired-kidney exchange, a special type of living-donor arrangement. Blood-type and tissue incompatibility can be barriers to a successful donor-recipient match. However, this unique program allows incompatible donor and recipient pairs to be matched with other pairs for compatible transplant. The UAB Paired Donation Program (PDP) has significantly increased the number of patients who are able to move from organ waiting lists to successful transplantation.

UAB has also made significant treatment advances that help to overcome some types of donor-recipient incompatibility, making more kidney transplants possible than ever before. For example, treatments developed at UAB have enabled donor-recipient pairs with certain forms of blood-type incompatibility to proceed with successful transplantation. Another advanced treatment developed at UAB, called desensitization, is proving effective in treating incompatible antibody levels in donor-recipient pairs, increasing the chances of a successful outcome after transplantation. 

To learn more about kidney donation please call 1-888-822-7892, or 975-9200.