University of Virginia Health System

There currently exists a huge disparity between organ demand and supply in transplantation. Consequently as organ availability decreases and the need for organs increases, the UVa Transplant Program is continually trying to augment the supply by offering living donation as an option. The decision to be a living donor is a tremendous selfless act of giving. All potential donors are carefully screened to ensure that they are physically healthy and would not be harmed through the act of donation.

Living kidney donation was first performed at the University of Virginia in May l969. Living donors are often related to recipients but can also be unrelated as in the case of longtime friends, spouses or partners. There are many advantages to living kidney donation. There is less waiting time for a kidney transplant and surgery can be scheduled to fit into the lifestyle of the donor and recipient. Transplants from living donors have a 90% to 95% success rate and have greater longevity than cadaveric organs. Since l998 we have offered living donors the option of a laparoscopic approach to removal of the kidney. This approach, although not suitable for all patients, offers many advantages in terms of recovery and wound healing.

Because of the increasing national shortage of donors we have sought alternatives to cadaver livers. Living donor liver transplants have been performed in the United States since l989 and at UVa since l999. The majority of these procedures have been done in children using a smaller portion (usually the left lateral segment) of the liver. However because of the growing need for adult livers larger portions (total right or total left lobes) have now been removed for transplantation. Similar to the kidney population, there are advantages to receiving a living liver transplant as opposed to a receiving a liver from a cadaveric donor. For instance the living donation transplant can be scheduled electively and before the onset of life threatening complications from end stage liver disease in the recipient. As with all surgical procedures removal of the donor liver does involve some risk to the donor. Therefore potential donors should be under 55 years of age and will be meticulously screened for potential health risks.