Recently, a new lifesaving option for those awaiting kidney transplants has been making news across the country: paired organ exchange.

But what is a paired organ exchange and how does it work?

Paired organ exchange is a technique of matching willing living organ donors to compatible transplant recipients. For example, a spouse may be more than willing to donate a kidney to his or her partner, but cannot since there is not a biological match. Through paired organ exchange, this willing spouse's kidney is donated to a matching recipient who also has an incompatible but willing spouse. The second donor then must match the first recipient to complete the paired exchange. Typically the transplant surgeries are scheduled simultaneously in case one of the donors decides to back out and the couples are kept anonymous from each other until after the transplant.

Recently, a couple from Northern California participated in an historic six-way kidney exchange at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. To learn more about this incredible story, click here.

For more information on paired organ exchange in Northern California and around the United States, visit these sites:

CPMC Paired Kidney Donation Program
http://www.cpmc.org/advanced/kidney/patients/topics/paired_kidney.html

New England Program for Kidney Exchange
http://www.nepke.org/

Silverstone Solutions
http://www.silverstonesolutions.com/

National Kidney Foundation: Living Donors Online
http://www.kidney.org/transplantation/livingdonors/infoPrograms.cfm

Johns Hopkins Comprehensive Transplant Center
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/transplant/
Programs/InKTP/kidneypaireddonation.html