What is Paired Donation?

Paired donation is a procedure that allows individuals who wish to give a kidney to their loved one, but cannot because they are incompatible (they have the wrong blood type or their loved one has immunity to their kidney).  In paired donation, the donor and recipient are matched with another incompatible donor/recipient pair and the kidneys are exchanged between the pairs. 

The diagram below illustrates how a paired donation works.  In this example, there are two pairs of potential kidney donors and recipients.  in Pair 1, the donor is of blood type A and cannot donate to their  recipient because the recipient has blood type B, (which is not compatible with blood type A).  In Pair 2, the donor is of blood type B, and is not compatible with the recipient's blood type A. 

A paired donation as demonstrated below, allows both donors to donate and both recipients to receive a compatible kidney.  In the paired donation, the Pair 1 recipient receives a kidney from the Pair 2 donor, and the Pair 2 recipient receives a kidney from the Pair 1 donor!!

 

Who is eligible for Paired Donation?

  • Potential kidney transplant recipients and their donors who cannot undergo transplantation because they are incompatible. Two causes of incompatibility include having the wrong blood type, or the recipient having immunity to the donor (termed a positive crossmatch).

 

 
A Success Story: The Vollmars and the Meyers
Daniel Vollmar (second from the left in the picture) wanted to donate to his mother, Josephine (on the left in the picture), but Josephine developed immunity to Daniel's tissues when she was pregnant with him. Rose Meyer (on the right in the picture)  wanted to donate to her husband, Paul, but her blood type (blood type A) was not compatible with Paul's blood type (blood type O).  The Meyers were entered into the PDC web-based computer matching program by their transplant coordinator at the Christ Hospital in Cincinnati, and the Vollmars were entered by their  transplant coordinator at the Medical University of Ohio.

After they were matched by the computer, and  crossmatching testing was performed to assure sure that Daniel's kidney was compatible with Paul and that Rose's kidney was compatible with Josephine.   After these tests were completed, they met each other (see CNN story "A Vital Trade" below. 

A few weeks later, in a paired donation procedure, Rose donated her kidney to Josephine, and Daniel donated to Paul. Josephine would have likely waited three years or more for a kidney on the deceased donor wait list. Paul never had to go on dialysis, where he would have also waited for three or more years.  All four are doing well today, and have become close friends because of the extraordinary experience they had in the paired donation procedure.

 
Original PDC 30 centers
Great Plains PDC 5 centers
New Jersey PDC 6 centers
SouthEast PDC 15 centers
SouthWest PDC 22 centers
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