Advantages of Paired Donation. If you have a willing, but incompatible living donor, participation in a paired donation program will increase the chance that you will be able to receive a living donor kidney transplant. A large number of patients will be enrolled in the paired donation registry from around the United States. Once you register, a specialized computer program will search the entire database for a potential match for you. The more living donors that participate in this program, the more lives that can be saved. The average living donor kidney functions for 15.5 years, while a deceased donor kidney typically lasts only half as long. It is estimated that paired donation will one day allow for an additional 3,000 living donor renal transplants per year in America by greatly increasing the number of living kidney donors. Of all the advances made in renal transplantation in the last 25 years, paired donation has the greatest potential to extend the lives of patients with kidney disease.

Financial assistance for uniquely-burdened transplant patients, their families, their living donors, and families of living donors.	Financial support for educational opportunities and training of transplant-related professionals.
Financial support for educational activities for transplant patients, their families, their living donors and families of the living donors.	Financial support for transplant-related research.

Paired Donation can Help.
If you are a patient in need of a kidney and you have a willing but incompatible living kidney donor, the two of you can participate in a new paired donation program sponsored by the Alliance for Paired Donation. This program uses a computer database to find other registered pairs who might be a match with you and your donor. To register for this program, you will need to contact the transplant program at the nearest participating hospital listed on our website at www.paireddonation.org.
 
When you contact your local participating transplant program, you and your willing donor will be asked to provide a detailed medical history. You and your donor will also be asked to undergo a number of medical tests. The program will be explained to you by a medical professional and you will be asked to sign a consent form stating that you understand this program and agree to participate. Once you agree to participate in the program and your information is registered in the computer database, The computer program will search for other pairs in the system who might be a good match for you. If the computer finds a potential match, a team of doctors from the participating transplant programs will determine whether to proceed with more advanced medical testing. If this is the case, your incompatible living donor will be scheduled for several additional tests. Travel may be required; for qualifying patients, financial assistance may be available to help with travel costs. We will determine the tests that are performed on your incompatible living donor.

The first phase may include: Blood tests Virus tests Urine tests Tests for possible cancer	* The second phase may include: Heart tests X-ray Evaluation and clearance by surgeon
* The second phase of testing will be performed only after all of your first phase work-up has been completed and evaluated.

Simultaneous Operations.
If physicians determine that both pairs are still able to undergo surgery, a date will be set for the operations. In the first operation, you will receive a kidney from the other donor at your transplant center. In the second operation, your donor will give a kidney to the other recipient at their transplant center. These operations will be scheduled so that they happen on the same day at approximately the same time. In this way, the chance that one participant might back out at the last minute will be minimized. Each participant will be asked prior to surgery whether or not they would like to meet the other people involved in the kidney exchange. If everyone wants to meet, such a meeting can be arranged. If one or more of you do not want to meet, your right to privacy will be respected. However, it is possible that a chance meeting could occur in the hospital or outpatient clinic setting.

While the national statistics show that 97% of living donor kidneys are functioning one year after transplantation and that 50% of these kidneys will work for at least 15 years, there are no guarantees. However, should your transplanted kidney fail, you will still be eligible to re-enter this program with another donor or to be placed on the national kidney transplant waiting list by your doctor. For more information visit our website at www.paireddonation.org or call 877-APD-4ALL.