The National Kidney Registry announced the successful completion of its 2,000th paired exchange transplant, which took place last night at UCLA Medical Center. This milestone represents the most paired exchange transplants facilitated by a single registry and represents over a billion dollars in dialysis savings to the U.S government and approximately $300 million in savings to health insurance companies.
Dr. Jeff Veale, the Director of the UCLA Exchange Program, which completed the 2000th transplant, commented, “We have had a tremendous amount of success getting over 210 patients transplanted through the National Kidney Registry; 30% of whom were highly sensitized. The coordination among the 80 Member Centers is a testament to the amazing teamwork of the dedicated transplant professionals across the nation.”
Eight years ago, on Valentine’s Day in 2008, the National Kidney Registry facilitated its first paired exchange transplants at New York Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center, the founding NKR center. Dr. Sandi Kapur, Chief of Transplant Surgery at Cornell said, “Paired exchange has been a blessing to so many of our patients that had willing but incompatible donors. After completing approximately 160 paired exchange transplants with the NKR over the past eight years, we only have two patients that are still waiting for a match. Most of our patients with incompatible donors are getting matched and transplanted in less than three months.”
Garet Hil, Founder and CEO of the National Kidney Registry and a living kidney donor himself, added, “Not only were the 2,000 patients directly helped but these same patients were removed from the deceased donor wait list when they were transplanted, allowing thousands of other patients on dialysis to move up on the wait list and receive a transplant sooner.”
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