Becoming a living kidney donor
As a donor, who can I donate to?
As a donor, you may be able to donate directly to a specific person, or more generally to anyone in need of a kidney transplant.
Directed donation
Directed donation is when you donate an organ to a specific person.
In directed donation, the donor may be:
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A blood relative of the recipient, such as a parent, brother, sister, or adult child
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Someone close to the recipient, such as a spouse, a friend, or a co-worker
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Someone who the donor has heard about but does not know personally
Non-directed donation
Non-directed donation is when you want to donate but do not know (and may never know) the person you will donate to.
In non-directed donation, the donor may be:
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Someone wishing to donate to a stranger on the transplant waitlist
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Someone who begins the process to donate to a friend or family member, but later decides to donate to a stranger after the friend or family member gets an organ from someone else
How will I know if I match with someone in need of a kidney?
If you match with someone well (called medically compatible), this will lower the chance that the recipient’s body will reject the transplanted kidney. Rejection is when a recipient’s body sees the new kidney as foreign and tries to attack or destroy it. This could lead to the transplant failing.
Transplant centers do tests to match donors and recipients by:
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Blood type: Certain donor blood types only work with certain recipient blood types:
If your blood type is...
The recipient's blood type must be...
If your blood type is
O
The recipient's blood type must be
A, B, AB, or O
If your blood type is
AB
The recipient's blood type must be
AB
If your blood type is
A
The recipient's blood type must be
A or AB
If your blood type is
B
The recipient's blood type must be
B or AB
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Tissue typing (also called “HLA typing”): A blood test that compares 6 antigens (proteins found on cells). The more antigens that match between you and the recipient, the more likely the recipient’s body will accept the donated kidney (and the less likely it will be to reject it).
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Crossmatching: Another blood test in which your blood is mixed with the recipient’s blood to see if the antibodies (proteins in the immune system) in the blood react to each other. If they do, it means the recipient’s body is likely to reject the donated kidney.
Can I still donate if I am not a match with the recipient?
Sometimes, someone is healthy and wants to donate a kidney to a specific person, but tests show the 2 people do not match (are not medically compatible). There are still ways to donate to help the person in need of a transplant.
Kidney paired donation (KPD) is when a computer, with information added by the transplant team, matches donors and recipients to create compatible pairs. Think about it as a swap or an exchange. Here’s how it works:
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You want to donate a kidney to someone, but you do not match.
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Another person wants to donate a kidney to someone, but they also do not match.
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A computer matches you with a compatible recipient, and their donor matches with your recipient.
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Swapping donors allows both transplants to happen.
Another option is through a voucher program. This is when a donor gives a kidney now and gets a “voucher.” Their intended recipient can use this voucher for a future matching living donor kidney.
KPD and the voucher program allow hundreds of people to get a transplant each year. These programs may allow the person you want to help to get a living donor transplant more quickly.