Living Donations

Our transplant programs offer living donations as an option for kidney and liver transplants.

The demand for transplant organs far exceeds the supply of available organs.

Because of this, our transplant programs offer living donations as an option for kidney and liver transplants. (Living donations are not an option for pancreas, heart or lung transplants.)

What Is A Living Donor?

A living donor is someone who donates an organ or part of an organ to another person, usually a family member or friend.

Our First Commitment: Donor Health

The decision to be a living donor is a selfless act. Our Donor Advocacy Team includes family medicine doctors, a social worker and psychologists who work with donors to ensure their well being.

All potential donors are carefully screened to ensure they are physically and psychologically healthy and know the risks and benefits of organ donation.

About Living Donation

Kidney Donation

Living kidney donation was first performed at UVA in May 1969. Living donors can include relatives, friends, coworkers, spouses or anonymous donors.

Since l998 we have offered living donors the option of laparoscopic surgery, which involves the use of a small video camera and very thin surgical tools, allowing the surgeon to use very small incisions to remove the kidney. This approach, although not suitable for all patients, offers shortened recovery time and wound healing.

We also perform living donor transplants even when the donor and recipient are blood type-incompatible or recipients are “cross match positive.” These are types of transplants that in the past could not be done.

Living kidney donor patient education handbook (PDF)

Liver Donation

Living donor liver transplants have been performed in the United States since 1989 and at here at UVA since 1999. The majority of these procedures are done in children using a smaller portion of the liver. Because of the growing need for adult livers, however, larger portions have now been removed for transplants.