Living Kidney Donor Program at Columbia

Who We Treat  |  Highlights  |  Appointments

If you need a kidney transplant, finding a matching donor as quickly as possible is your number one priority. The Living Donor Program at Columbia University Irving Medical Center/NewYork-Presbyterian can help you receive a kidney from a family member, friend, or even a stranger, which offers a number of benefits over deceased donor transplants, including:

  • Shorter wait times
  • Better and more immediate organ function
  • Reduced risk of organ rejection

Our team is the most active living-donor service in New York, making this life-saving surgery available to more people than ever.

If you’d like to learn more about receiving a kidney through Columbia’s living donor program, call us at (212) 305-6469 to get started today, or sign up with one of our online forms:

I Need A Transplant »  |  I’d Like to Donate My Kidney »

Who We Treat

Living donor kidney transplant is an option for patients facing severe kidney disease–also known as end-stage renal disease (ESRD). While most transplants use a donor organ from a deceased person, for organs like the kidney, the donor organ can come from a living person. These can include kidneys donated by:

  • Siblings
  • Close Relatives
  • Friends
  • Strangers

While donor organs from siblings and close relatives provide the best outcomes, living donor organs from any source typically provide better results than deceased organ transplants.

Learn More About Living Donor Transplants

Services We Offer

Our program offers the highest-level kidney transplant support available, across all stages of your care. From initial evaluations, to the transplant procedure itself, to long-term follow up care, you’ll have a full team of specialists watching out for you.

For patients who come to us without an identified or compatible living donor, we have options available to help:

Pair Donor Exchanges

If you don’t have a willing living donor that is a compatible match, there are still ways to find one. A paired donor exchange, or “kidney swap,” is a coordinated strategy that matches living donors with compatible recipients across programs, hospitals, and even regions. By agreeing to “swap” recipients and give a kidney to an unknown but compatible recipient, two or more donors can provide two or more patients with healthy kidneys, reducing each patient's time on the waiting list.

Incompatible Transplants

Until recently, people waiting for a kidney transplant had to wait for a kidney from a donor with compatible blood and tissue types. While this is still the best option, it is now possible to successfully transplant a kidney from a donor with mismatched antibodies.

Program Highlights

A History of Success

Columbia/NewYork-Presbyterian has been performing living donor kidney transplantation for more than half a century. And we’re committed to making transplants available to more people in need.

Minimal Access Kidney Donation Procedure

At Columbia, our transplant surgeons have dramatically improved the kidney donation operation by developing and refining a minimal-access approach to kidney donation that only requires a three-inch incision.

Finding a Kidney Faster

Our Living Donor program has refined and improved the process of identifying a donor, coordinating and performing the donor and recipient procedure, and providing care for recovery. Our vast experience allows us to help people get off the transplant waiting list faster.

Paired Donor Exchanges

The logistical challenges of kidney swaps can be daunting, especially if many donor/recipient pairs are involved. Our team understands what’s necessary and how to make these life-saving swaps happen, even at a larger scale.

Living Donor Options Even Without a Compatible Match

Compatible living donors aren’t always available. Columbia/NewYork-Presbyterian is one of the only programs to offer "incompatible" kidney transplants for recipients, thanks to advanced methods to remove antigens from the recipient’s blood before transplant.

Make An Appointment

Living donor programs make the life-saving gift of kidney donation a reality for more people than ever. If you’d like to learn more about receiving a kidney through Columbia’s living donor program, call us at (212) 305-6469 to get started today, or sign up with one of our online forms:
I Need A Transplant » | I Want to Donate My Kidney »

We accept most major insurance plans and can verify your plan when you call to make your appointment. You can also have your doctor contact us for a referral and our team can help coordinate your care.

Resources

Stories & Perspectives

Planning & Preparing

Related