Hospital performs first live donor paired kidney exchange

UW Hospital surgeons successfully performed Wisconsin’s first “live donor paired kidney exchange” on Nov. 7, one of a handful done in the United States. The exchange allows a donor, who is incompatible with an intended recipient, to donate to a blood type-compatible recipient in exchange for that recipient’s donor kidney. In other words, if there is another recipient and donor pair in the same situation with the reverse ABO blood types, paired kidney exchange can be an option.