Kidney Donation
What Is a Live Donor Kidney Transplant?
Photo: Allan Soriano and his wife, Josephine are living kidney donors.
A kidney transplant is a surgical procedure performed to give a healthy kidney from one person to another with kidney failure. Generally, the waiting period for a kidney from a deceased donor can be years.
If you are awaiting a kidney transplant, finding a living donor match dramatically shortens your waiting time, increases long-term transplant kidney and patient survival, and gives you the flexibility of scheduling your date of surgery.
Why Become a Living Kidney Donor?
If you have healthy kidneys, you can help a loved one who needs a kidney by becoming a living donor yourself. You will be able to live a healthy life on the remaining kidney.
A living donation offers significant advantages, including:
- Shorter waiting time to transplantation for the recipient
- The best chance for compatibility between recipient and donor
- Longer average kidney survival rates (compared with kidneys from deceased donors)
Why Stanford
Stanford Health Care’s Kidney Transplant Program is pioneering new treatment options and is one of the few centers in the nation to offer advanced procedures that reduce the waiting time for recipients and make transplantation possible.
- A leader in transplantation:
- The first kidney transplantation in California was performed at Stanford in 1960.
- The Stanford Kidney Transplant Program started in 1991.
- More than 1,200 kidney transplants performed.
- Pioneering new treatment methods that improve patient outcomes.
- High-quality care: we tailor treatment to each individual patient. We provide intensive education for patients, your families and caregivers before the procedure, and schedule more visits after surgery to measure treatments and progress.
Questions?
Download this guide to becoming a living donor (PDF).
Get started by completing this form to determine whether you qualify.