Could you be a donor? Call us at 508-334-1269 to find out.
Often the only hope for those with advanced and permanent kidney failure is the transplant of a new kidney. The UMass Memorial Transplant Program offers this highly successful surgical procedure that places a healthy kidney from a deceased or living donor into the body of a patient suffering from renal failure. A healthy single kidney takes over the work of the two failing kidneys. First performed in the 1950s, kidney transplants have evolved to the point where rejection and postsurgical infections are greatly reduced.
Live donor kidney transplant is a procedure that involves a living donor ages 18 to 60 giving one of his/her two kidneys to a family member or close friend. Nationally, the survival rate for live donor kidney transplants is greater than 98 percent after one year.
One way of performing this procedure is by a minimally invasive surgery known as laparoscopic donor nephrectomy, which uses smaller incisions, and generally offers a faster recovery and shorter hospitalization compared to traditional open procedures.
The kidney is sometimes transplanted with the pancreas. The pancreas must come from a deceased donor.
Living Kidney Donor Program
Advances in surgical techniques have allowed the development of a Living Kidney Donor Program at UMass Memorial. This procedure allows specially selected people to donate one of their kidneys to a loved one. To be considered a living donor, you must be in excellent health and between the ages of 21 and 70. Most donors are related or have a very special relationship with the recipient. Call us at 508-334-1269 to learn more.
The donor must go through an evaluation process to ensure they are in excellent health with no evidence of an underlying disease or other medical problem that would put them at increased risk for the surgery. The donor evaluation is made up of several steps. After each step, our team of experts analyzes results of the testing and discusses them with the potential donor.