eMJA: Paired kidney donations to expand the living donor pool: the Western Australian experience

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Paired kidney donations to expand the living donor pool: the Western Australian experience

Paolo Ferrari, Claudia Woodroffe and Frank T Christiansen

MJA 2009; 190 (12): 700-703

Introduction

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Conventional paired kidney exchange

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Altruistic donors and altruistic donor chains

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Allocation algorithm

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Paired donation and ABO-incompatible transplantation

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Lessons from the Western Australian experience

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Outlook

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Acknowledgements

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Competing interests

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Author details

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References

Abstract

Falling numbers of deceased organ donors and longer kidney transplant waiting lists have increased the emphasis on live kidney donation to meet demand for kidney transplantation.
Several new strategies have been introduced to expand live donation beyond the classic direct donation. These include:

altruistic donation;
paired kidney exchange (PKE); and
altruistic donor chains programs.

Using incompatible donor–recipient pairs and altruistic donors, the Western Australian PKE program achieved nine successful kidney transplantations between October 2007 and November 2008.
If PKE were performed routinely in Australia, the rate of kidney transplants could increase by 7%–10%.

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