For children who need a kidney transplant, there are a number of advantages to having a live kidney donation — one that comes from a living person. Primarily, the wait time for the transplant is much shorter.

Receiving a kidney from a living donor also eliminates the time between procurement of the organ and transplantation. If an organ has been outside the donor’s body for too long, it might not work as well. A continued shortage of deceased donor kidneys has also led to an increased reliance on living donor transplantation.

Donor qualifications

If you are considering being a living donor for a young friend or family member who needs a new kidney, you must meet certain qualifications. While you do not need to be related to the recipient, you must:

• Be between the ages of 21 and 50
• Have health insurance
• Have no significant medical problems (including but not limited to: diabetes, cancer, obesity) and normal kidney function

Living donor evaluation

Potential donors must undergo a thorough evaluation to ensure they can tolerate the procedure and that their kidney is appropriate for the recipient. This evaluation takes place at the Penn Transplant Institute at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP). Since living organ donors must be adults, CHOP’s partnership with Penn Medicine ensures the best care for both donor and recipient.

The above criteria are all part of the initial evaluation, but keep in mind that each case is unique. If you are considering living donation, we encourage you to fill out our initial screening form by clicking here, or to contact our kidney transplant team by calling 215-590-3913 or by emailing CHOPKidneyTransplantTeam@chop.edu.

Access the CHOP Living Donor Screening Form here.

Please see these links from the Penn Transplant Institute for more information about being a kidney donor:
Kidney Donor Evaluation
Kidney Donor Surgery
Living with One Kidney
FAQs

Non-directed kidney donation

If you would like to donate a kidney to a friend or relative but are not a match, or if you would like to be a kidney donor but do not have an identified recipient, non-directed donation allows your kidney to go to someone else in need on the transplant list.

Our partnership with Penn Medicine gives us the opportunity to participate in the National Kidney Registry that facilitates paired kidney donation for donors who aren’t a match for their desired recipient. Your kidney doesn’t go directly to your recipient, but you still get to donate, and your recipient can get a new kidney that is an excellent match.

The types of kidney donation are explained further on Penn Medicine’s website.

If you do not have a recipient in mind but are interested in donating your kidney to any child at CHOP, please indicate this when filling out your screening form that can be found at the link above.