Vouchers for Future Kidney Transplants to Overcome "Chronological Incompatibility" Between Living Donors and Recipients. uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • BACKGROUND: The waiting list for kidney transplantation is long. The creation of "vouchers" for future kidney transplants enables living donation to occur when optimal for the donor and transplantation to occur later, when and if needed by the recipient. METHODS: The donation of a kidney at a time that is optimal for the donor generates a "voucher" that only a specified recipient may redeem later when needed. The voucher provides the recipient with priority in being matched with a living donor from the end of a future transplantation chain. Besides its use in persons of advancing age with a limited window for donation, vouchers remove a disincentive to kidney donation, namely, a reluctance to donate now lest one's family member should need a transplant in the future. RESULTS: We describe the first three voucher cases, in which advancing age might otherwise have deprived the donors the opportunity to provide a kidney to a family member. These 3 voucher donations functioned in a nondirected fashion and triggered 25 transplants through kidney paired donation across the United States. CONCLUSIONS: The provision of a voucher to potential recipients whose need for a transplant makes them "chronologically incompatible" with their donors may increase the number of living donor transplants.

publication date

  • September 1, 2017

Research

keywords

  • Delivery of Health Care, Integrated
  • Directed Tissue Donation
  • Donor Selection
  • Kidney Diseases
  • Kidney Transplantation
  • Living Donors
  • Time-to-Treatment
  • Transplant Recipients
  • Waiting Lists

Identity

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 85015963361

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1097/TP.0000000000001744

PubMed ID

  • 28333861

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 101

issue

  • 9