What is Kidney Prioritization for Living Kidney Donors?
When you donate a kidney through the National Kidney Registry (NKR), you are covered by a wide range of protections, one of which is kidney prioritization.
Kidney prioritization is a system designed to provide living kidney donors with a safety net in case they ever need a kidney transplant in the future. This ensures that living donors receive special consideration for a living donor transplant should they face kidney failure themselves.
This protection is designed to address the concern that some living kidney donors might have regarding their future kidney function. In other words, what if you donate a kidney now but then you need a kidney transplant in the future?
Kidney prioritization gives kidney donors registered with the NKR peace of mind, knowing that if they ever need a kidney transplant, they will go to the top of the list and the NKR will immediately begin the search for a living kidney donor to facilitate their transplant. The NKR offers kidney prioritization to living donors as a way of honoring their generous gift and ensuring they are able to obtain the best possible outcome if they face kidney failure later in life.
It is important to note that if you become a living kidney donor, it is extremely unlikely that you will need a kidney transplant in the future. In fact, living kidney donors may be less likely to be diagnosed with kidney disease than the general public.
All potential living donors undergo an extensive medical evaluation before being approved as donors, and assessing kidney function is a large part of that evaluation. Only people with healthy, well-functioning kidneys are accepted as donors. If your kidneys are healthy enough to get you approved as a kidney donor, chances are they will continue to function normally for many years to come.
In a 2017 study, which tracked 133,494 living kidney donors from 1987 to 2015, just 331 (about 0.25%) were diagnosed with kidney failure later in life. A 2014 study found that just 0.03% of living kidney donors experienced kidney failure within 15 years after donation. Another 2014 study, which followed 1,901 kidney donors for an average of 15 years, found a rate of kidney failure of 302 cases per million (0.0302%).
As of July 2024, the NKR has facilitated more than 9,000 transplants and none of these donors have ever needed a kidney transplant.
Kidney prioritization is available through NKR’s Voucher Program, NKR swaps, NKR internal direct donations, remote direct donations, and Kidney for Life direct donations.