Why it's done

Living kidney donation via a donor nephrectomy offers those in need of a kidney transplant an alternative to waiting for a deceased-donor organ to become available.

A kidney transplant is usually the treatment of choice for kidney failure, compared with a lifetime on dialysis.

Living-donor kidney transplants offer several benefits to the recipient, including fewer complications and longer survival of the donor organ when compared with deceased-donor kidney transplants.

The use of donor nephrectomy for living kidney donation has increased in recent years as the number of people waiting for a kidney transplant grows. The demand for donor kidneys far outweighs the supply of deceased-donor kidneys, which makes living-donor kidney transplant an attractive option for people waiting for a deceased-donor kidney to become available.

Types of live kidney donation

You may choose to donate your kidney in one of two ways:

• Directed donation, in which you name a specific transplant recipient. This is the most common type of living-donor organ donation.
• Nondirected donation, also known as good Samaritan or altruistic donation, in which you do not name the recipient of the donated organ. The match is based on medical need and compatibility.

If you and your intended recipient in a directed donation have incompatible blood types or are otherwise not a suitable match, paired-organ donation or donation chain programs may be an option.

In paired exchange donation, two or more organ-recipient pairs trade donors so that each recipient gets an organ that is compatible with his or her blood type. A nondirected living donor also may participate in paired-organ donation to help match incompatible pairs.

More than one pair of incompatible living donors and recipients may be linked with a nondirected living donor to form a donation chain in order to receive compatible organs. In this scenario, multiple recipients benefit from a single nondirected living donor.