Does Blood Type Matter for Kidney Transplant?

Blood type is an important factor in kidney transplantation. The blood types of the kidney donor and the transplant recipient must be compatible to prevent the recipient’s body from rejecting the donated kidney.

There are four main blood types: A, B, AB, and O. According to the latest results from Statista, the most common blood type is O (45% of the population has this blood type), followed by A (40%), B (11%), and AB (4%).

What Blood Types Match for Kidney Donation?

• Kidney donors with blood type O can donate a kidney to recipients with any blood type: O, A, B, or AB.
• Kidney donors with blood type A can donate a kidney to recipients with blood type A or AB.
• Kidney donors with blood type B can donate a kidney to recipients with blood type B or AB.
• Kidney donors with blood type AB can only donate a kidney to recipients with blood type AB.

What Blood Types Match for Kidney Transplant?

• Kidney patients with blood type O can only receive a kidney from donors with blood type O.
• Kidney patients with blood type A can receive a kidney from donors with blood type A or O.
• Kidney patients with blood type B can receive a kidney from donors with blood type B or O.
• Kidney patients with blood type AB can receive a kidney from a donor with any blood type: A, B, AB, or O.

Blood type is just the first step in determining compatibility between a kidney donor and a transplant recipient. The next factor that influences compatibility is tissue typing, along with a variety of other tests and evaluations to find the best match between the kidney donor and the transplant recipient.

What if You Want to Donate Your Kidney to Someone Who is Not a Blood Type Match?

While blood type is one factor in compatibility, when it comes to living kidney donation, it’s not as important as it once was, and in many cases, it does not matter at all.

If you are approved as a kidney donor through the National Kidney Registry (NKR), you can donate though the Voucher Program, which allow you to donate your kidney to anyone, even if their blood type is not compatible with yours.

In the Voucher Program, incompatible donor-recipient pairs enter the NKR’s large pool of donors to find the best possible match for both the donor and the recipient.

How the Standard Voucher Program Works

1. An approved donor informs the transplant center that they would like to donate through the Voucher Program and provides the name of their intended recipient.
2. When the donor is ready to donate, they are activated in the NKR system and the NKR begins searching for a matching recipient. When a good match is found, the donor has the donation surgery, and their kidney is transplanted into the recipient.
3. The donor’s donation generates a voucher for the intended recipient. When they are ready for a transplant, they redeem the voucher and the NKR will begin searching its pool of prospective donors who have registered with the system but not yet donated.
4. When a match is found, the recipient and the matched donor will be scheduled for surgery. The kidney is removed from the donor and transplanted into the recipient.

Because the NKR is able to find the best match for each recipient from among its donor pool, which is the largest in the world, there is no need for a donor to be a blood type match for the person they want to donate a kidney to. In fact, in most cases, even if a donor is a good match for their intended recipient, they can find an even better match by entering the Voucher Program.

If you are interested in becoming a donor, visit the NKR website to complete the initial donor screening.