KIDNEY
Incompatible
Program
Kidney transplants between a potential live donor and a recipient who are regarded as incompatible due to different blood types or positive crossmatches result in the transplant not being performed. Both of these types of incompatibility are due to the presence of antibodies in the recipient that would react with the donor organ causing the transplant to fail.
Texas Transplant Institute is a leader in offering comprehensive solutions for kidney transplant patients with incompatible live donors. We offer the following innovative programs:
- Paired Donor Exchange
- Incompatible Blood Type
- Patients with High Levels of Antibodies
- Simultaneous paired kidney exchange
- Simultaneous three-way paired kidney exchange
We have a large in-house database designed to match donor/recipient pairs managed by a dedicated team of immunologists, physicians and transplant coordinators.
Please call the Incompatible Donor Hot Line at (210) 575-2555 or (800) 888-0402 if you think you might be a candidate for an incompatible transplant. We will explore the options with you and provide complete information about these therapies. Specific criteria must be met in order to be considered for this program.
Paired Donor Exchange
Paired donation is an option that can help kidney patients awaiting transplantation who have family members or friends willing to donate a kidney, but are not able to because the donor’s blood or tissue type is not compatible with the recipient’s.
With a paired kidney transplant, two (or more) incompatible donor and recipient pairs “exchange” kidneys, making two compatible living donor transplants possible. See graphic below for a two-pair exchange.
Donation Process
Pair 1 - Donor 1 and Recipient 1 are not compatible
Pair 2 - Donor 2 and Recipient 2 are not compatible
However, when you exchange donors
Donor 1 is compatible with Recipient 2, and
Donor 2 is compatible with Recipient 1
If pairs are willing to participate in this "exchange," a comprehensive evaluation process begins. Once the evaluations of donors and recipients are completed, the transplants are scheduled, and occur on the same day. The donor and recipient operations occur simultaneously.
Paired kidney donation is a step in reducing the time spent on the transplant waiting list, and increases access to organs for all kidney transplant candidates.