Dual Kidney Transplant

Dual Kidney Transplants

Service Type
Body

The Need for Kidney Donations

In the US, we have more people on dialysis waiting for a kidney transplant than we have available kidneys. The wait time for a donor kidney averages about five years. Data shows that people have an approximately 50% chance of surviving the five-year wait.

That’s why, at UVA, we’re doing everything we can to get organs to donors. We’re applying our expertise and experience to use kidneys other centers can’t to save more lives.

Clinical Practice Terms

Two-for-One Kidney Transplant

Service Type
Body

Unused Kidneys

Transplant centers, for good reason, choose donor kidneys that will most likely succeed in transplant recipients. This means that many kidneys are rejected, deemed too worn and old to promise much use. Other rejected kidneys come from donors with:

  • Diabetes
  • High blood pressure
  • Scarring from biopsy

By themselves, these kidneys don’t have the ability to work for a recipient for very long.

Clinical Practice Terms

Pediatric En-Bloc: The Smallest Kidneys

Service Type
Body

Children usually have healthy, pristine kidneys. Unlike many adults, babies and children haven’t lived long enough to develop high blood pressure, diabetes or complicating exposures.

UVA kidney transplant surgeons have expertise in transplanting kidneys from infants. This very unique procedure helps us save as many lives as possible and make the best out of heartbreaking loss.

Since most transplant centers do not offer this option, we receive these kidneys from all over the country that would otherwise be thrown away.

Clinical Practice Terms