A kidney exchange is an innovative twist on efforts aimed at increasing the donor pool by giving people who are unable to receive a kidney from a loved one or friend the opportunity to still receive a kidney through an exchange between incompatible donor-recipient pairs. Now, with this exciting new program, you can exchange donors with another pair(s) in a similar situation as you, making transplantation possible.
The kidney voucher program is an important innovation in paired kidney donation that enables the living-donor procedure to be uncoupled in time from the recipient’s transplantation.
UCLA Kidney Transplant Program
200 UCLA Medical Plaza, Suite 565
Los Angeles, CA 90095
(310) 267-6907
1. The first living donor kidney transplant occurred in 1954.
2. Almost half of kidney transplants come from live donors.
3. Humans are born with two kidneys, but can live a normal life with only one.
4. Live donor kidneys last twice as long as a kidney from a deceased donor.
5. 35% of donors are incompatible to a loved one needing a kidney.
6. Lloyd Shapley, late UCLA emeritus professor and Nobel laureate, laid the foundation for advances in the matching of kidney donors with transplant recipients. Read more »
