Premium
Paired kidney donations to expand the living donor pool: the Western Australian experience
Author(s) -
Ferrari Paolo,
Woodroffe Claudia,
Christiansen Frank T
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2009.tb02642.x
Subject(s) - donation , organ donation , kidney donation , kidney transplantation , kidney , medicine , altruism (biology) , kidney transplant , waiting list , live donor , transplantation , surgery , psychology , social psychology , political science , law
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%.