Alternatives for unsuccessful living donor kidney exchange pairs.

UNLABELLED

Living donor kidney exchange has become an efficient solution for recipients with incompatible donors. Here we describe the fate of all patients that were enrolled in our program during 2004-2010.

METHODS

Data on registration, computerized matching, cross matching, and transplantations within or outside the program were collected.

RESULTS

Between January 2004 and December 2010, 422 pairs were registered. To create new combinations a match procedure was run 28 times with a median input of 14 (7-22) new pairs and a median of 55 (16-92) participating pairs. Matches were found for 127/185 (69%) cross match-incompatible pairs and 91/237 (38%) ABO-incompatible pairs. 141 of the 218 matched pairs successfully donated and received kidneys in exchange. There were 77 transplants cancelled for medical or psychological reasons, and an alternative solution was found for 26 of these. So in total 167 (141 + 26) patients received a transplant. Of the remaining 51 cancelled transplants, 26 pairs dropped out, 22 patients found an alternative transplantation outside the program and 3 are still waiting. For the 204 unmatched couples, 46 are still in the program while 34 others dropped out, and 124 found an alternative living kidney donor. After 7 years, 39% of participants received a kidney within the exchange program, 35% were transplanted outside the program, 14% of the pairs were delisted and 12% are still waiting. Among the 146 patients who received a kidney outside the program, 47 were transplanted with a deceased donor kidney, 21 found another donor, 37 received an ABO-incompatible transplant and 41 were transplanted in a domino-paired procedure triggered by an non-directed donor.

CONCLUSION

In the 7 years of our Living Donor Kidney Exchange Program 313/422 (74%) of the participating patients were transplanted. Approximately half of them (167/313, 53%) received a kidney through the exchange program, while 47 (15%) received a deceased donor kidney and 99 (32%) were transplanted through other living donation programs. The exchange program proved to be highly successful not only in its direct results but also indirectly by triggering alternative solutions.