Why donate a kidney?

Patients with end-stage kidney disease have three options for treatment: 1. dialysis, 2. kidney transplant from a deceased donor, or 3. kidney transplant from a living donor.

With dialysis, a machine is used to artificially clean the blood, doing the work of a healthy kidney. It’s time-consuming and exhausting, as frequent as three times a week for up to four hours each session. While a patient can remain on dialysis for many years, it’s not a cure for kidney disease. In fact, ten percent of patients on dialysis die each year while waiting for a kidney transplant. For some groups, such as elderly patients and patients with diabetes, there is an even greater risk of dying.

A kidney transplant is the preferred treatment option for patients with end-stage kidney disease. But the demand for kidneys from deceased donors is greater than the number available – which means patients can wait years for a kidney transplant, often growing weaker while waiting.

The best and fastest option for kidney transplant is to receive a kidney from a living donor.

More information about living kidney donation:

What are the advantages for the recipient of a living donor transplant?
- Wait times for recipients are reduced from years to months, potentially avoiding dialysis.
- Recipients have better outcomes with kidneys from living donors.
- Kidneys from living donors may last nearly twice as long as kidneys from deceased donors.
- Risk of rejection is low.
About a third of the transplants performed at Ohio State are performed with kidneys from living donors. Often living donors are family members, but a growing number are friends or co-workers. There are also people who choose to donate a kidney without having a specific recipient in mind. These extraordinary people are called non-directed or altruistic donors.

Learn more on how to ask for a living kidney donation
Who can safely donate a kidney?
The decision to become a living donor is a voluntary one, and the donor may change their mind at any time during the process. The donor’s decision and reasons are kept confidential.

Living kidney donor qualifications:
- Between the ages of 18 and 75.
- In good overall physical and mental health free from uncontrolled high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, HIV/AIDS, hepatitis and organ disease.
- Gender and race are not factors.
- A matching blood type is not a requirement, as it is possible to donate with mismatched blood/tissue through Kidney Paired Donation (KPD).
What are the risks of donating a kidney?
- Living kidney donation surgery is a relatively low risk procedure – now mostly performed laparoscopically – but there is still the potential for complications.
- Life expectancy after donation is the same as that of people with two kidneys. A single kidney is able to meet the body's needs very well as it enlarges to do the work formerly shared by both kidneys.
- Donors are tested and re-tested prior to surgery to ensure overall good health for the best possible outcomes. Only healthy people are accepted as donors. The safety of the donor is of the utmost importance.
- Living kidney donation surgery is considered a relatively safe procedure, but with any surgery there are risks for potential complications.
- It is recommended that female donors wait at least six months after donation surgery before becoming pregnant.
Who pays for the kidney donation surgery?

The recipient’s medical insurance generally pays the cost of the living donor’s evaluation, testing and surgery, and therefore, the donor should not incur any medical expenses. However, time off work and travel expenses need to be considered. The usual recovery time for a donor is four to six weeks.

Some donors may be eligible to receive financial assistance for donation expenses like transportation, parking and hotels. There is no financial assistance available for lost wages. A new Ohio law gives state employees paid time off work for donating.
What is recovery like after donating a kidney?
- Surgery is usually performed laparoscopicly, meaning smaller incisions requiring a shorter hospital stay for faster recovery.
- Most donors are able to go home the day after surgery.
- About a week after surgery, donors generally report feeling tired but ready to go about normal activities.
- Driving may resume one to two weeks after surgery, and depending on the occupation, can usually return to work in two to four weeks.
- For the first six weeks, donors are restricted from lifting anything over five to ten pounds.
- After that six-week period, all normal life activities can be resumed.
What if my religion doesn’t approve of kidney donation?
How to start the process to be a living kidney donor?

Start the assessment process to be a living kidney donor by completing the online health history questionnaire.

Once completed, your information will be reviewed by our team. If you're a potential candidate, one of our living donor team members will contact you directly.

If you have questions at any time, please email an Ohio State living donor team member at livingdonor@osumc.edu or call 614-293-6724, option 3.

Request video transcript

46 year old Mike Robison, living in Arizona, donated a kidney to his brother, Steve living in Columbus, Ohio. Mike talks about his kidney donation experience at Ohio State's Comprehensive Transplant Center and how his life has not changed after kidney donation, explaining that “it was a great process overall.”

Evaluation Process
Donation Process
Paired Kidney Donation

Evaluation Process

Living Kidney Donor Evaluation Process

The donor undergoes a medical history review and a complete physical examination. A psychological evaluation may be used to provide information, emotional support and assess motivation.

All prospective living donors meet with our Living Donor Advocate to discuss the candidate’s decision to become a donor. The Living Donor Advocate provides unbiased, confidential support, discusses your willingness to donate and assesses your understanding of informed consent.

Here’s what you can expect during your evaluation process:

You will need to provide a copy of your blood type or have blood drawn to confirm blood type ((the Pre-Transplant Office will provide an order for blood draw)
24-hour blood pressure monitoring
Female donors will need to provide a copy of their last Pap test result, breast exam and mammogram report. A Release of Information form is included in this packet. Please sign the form
and forward it to your doctor’s office. If your Pap test or mammogram is more than a year old, you should schedule an appointment for new exams
Complete a Glucose Tolerance Test (GTT) if requested by the Pre-Transplant Office
Blood collection for comprehensive tests and screening for communicable disease
24-hour urine collection
Chest X-ray and EKG (tests to determine heart and lung health)
CT angiogram of kidneys (an X-ray test to evaluate the kidneys and blood vessels)
Meet with a transplant coordinator have a psychosocial evaluation, a psychosocial evaluation, receive surgical and medical evaluations, and complete tests
Any additional testing as needed
Final pre-donation laboratory studies (done seven to 10 days before surgery)

IMPORTANT: You won’t be evaluated for living kidney donation until you’ve watched our 30-minute education video: go.osu.edu/KidneyDonorEducation.

Donation Process

Living Kidney Donation Process

All donation and transplant surgeries are done at Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center by our transplant team. If our transplant team clears you as a donor and your recipient has been identified, the surgery will be scheduled within a few weeks.

Before Donation Surgery

Week Before Kidney Donation Surgery

About a week before the surgery date, you and your recipient will have blood drawn for a final tissue matching, as well as HIV and hepatitis testing. In addition, you will have a pre-operative physical exam, blood and urine collected for final laboratory testing, an education session with your coordinator, and a meeting with the donor advocate.
Donation Surgery

Kidney Donation Surgery (First Day in the Hospital)

The day of your donation surgery, you will be asked to check in to the hospital, usually in the early morning.

When you arrive, you will be admitted into the hospital and taken to the pre-operation area. Once you are comfortable, the doctors and nurses will conduct a final examination. You can expect to have blood drawn and an IV placed in your arm. These final health checks help our transplant staff to know that you are in excellent health for donation. You will meet with your transplant surgeon prior to being taken into the operating room. This is also a good time for you to ask any last minute questions, and to openly talk about any concerns you may have before surgery.

For information about hospital visitation and the latest updates on the visitor policy, visit wexnermedical.osu.edu/guide.

Kidney donation surgery is a laparoscopic procedure. You will have two to three small incisions under your rib cage, on the left or right side (depending on which kidney you are donating). These small cuts, about a half inch each, are small portholes for the laparoscopic instruments to be inserted into your body. There will also be a four-inch vertical incision in the middle of your lower abdomen – this is for the surgeon’s hand that assists the laparoscopic instruments for increased safety.

You can expect the procedure to last two to three hours. Once the kidney you are donating is removed, it will be placed in a sterile bowl and taken immediately to your recipient’s operating room by a waiting transplant surgeon, where it’s then transplanted into your recipient’s abdomen.

After surgery, you will be moved to the transplant unit for private recovery. While in your room, you will be closely monitored by our transplant team to ensure you are recovering well, have limited nausea, are able to eat, use the bathroom and pass gas, and are free from infection. Ask us for help when you want to get out of bed, as the surgery and medicines you are given can make you feel less than steady on your feet.
After Donation Surgery

Day After Kidney Donation Surgery (Second Day in the Hospital)

The day after surgery you will be encouraged to get out of bed and walk with support around the hospital unit. You will also be asked to practice your coughing and deep breathing to protect your lungs, and you will be given pain medicine, as needed, to relieve any discomfort.

If doing well, most donors are able to go home. You can expect to still have some soreness and discomfort. However, you will not be able to leave the hospital until we are sure it is safe for you to continue your recovery in the comfort of your own home. It is important to remember that living kidney donation is a major surgery and you will need help while you recover at home.
Care After Donation
Home Care After Surgery
Every person reacts differently to surgery, and while some may be up and about the following week, it may take some a few more weeks to return to normal routines. Expect to restart all normal activities within two to three weeks of surgery. To prevent wound healing problems, do not lift objects over five to ten pounds for at least six weeks after surgery.

During your recovery at home, we encourage you to contact our transplant team if you have questions or concerns about your progress.

After donation surgery, your continued good health is our main concern. It is required that you schedule and keep the follow-up appointments with Ohio State's Transplant Center. Appointments will need to be scheduled for:
- Six weeks after surgery
- Six months after surgery
- One year after surgery
- Two years after surgery
After two years, we encourage you to visit your primary care physician for annual checkups.

Paired Kidney Donation

Sometimes, a person may agree to donate a kidney to a recipient, but his or her blood or tissue type does not match their recipient. Ohio State’s Comprehensive Transplant Center can help match such a donor/recipient pair with another donor/recipient pair through a process called Kidney Paired Donation (KPD).

For example, if the recipient from one pair is a match with the donor from another pair and vice versa, our Transplant Center can arrange the exchange through two simultaneous transplants. This allows the two recipients to receive organs from two people who were willing to donate, even though the original pairings were incompatible or mismatched.

Both donor and recipient candidates are carefully evaluated and tested medically and psychosocially to ensure that the benefits outweigh the risks. It is important for both surgeries to be scheduled for the same time, in case either donor changes their mind at the time of surgery. Though the surgeries take place at the same time, they can occur at different hospitals and even in different time zones.

Paired donation can also involve multiple donors and recipients. In September 2011, Ohio State achieved national recognition with a six-way paired kidney transplant, coordinating the in-house transplantation of six kidneys in a domino-effect surgical process.

Ohio State has an internal paired donation program in addition to working with national donor exchange registries to share information among hospitals to find matches for pairs of donors and recipients who are not matches. These types of paired exchanges will hopefully have a positive impact on the waiting list for kidney transplants.

Your doctor will help you decide if a paired kidney donation is a good solution for your donation.

In a paired kidney exchange, an incompatible donor/recipient pair is matched with another incompatible donor/recipient pair for a swap. Each donor gives a kidney to the other person's intended recipient.

Patient Success Stories

Request video transcript

Mother and son donate kidneys to ailing husband and father, 21 years apart

Transplant surgeon Amer Rajab, MD, PhD, performed both procedures across the decades for ‘blessed’ patient.

Read their amazing story here.

Request video transcript

Kidney donation from one brother to another, half a country apart

46 year old Mike Robison, living in Arizona, decided to donate his kidney to his brother, Steve living in Columbus, Ohio.

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Brother donates life saving kidney to brother

Photojournalist Mike Robinson sat down in his very own news studio in Phoenix, Arizona, to share his story about donating a kidney to his brother who suffered from kidney disease. This story aired on FOX 10 in Phoenix on World Kidney Day.

Request video transcript

Mark’s once in a lifetime moment to meet his kidney donor for the first time

Behind-the-scenes footage of the first ever meeting between Mark, a kidney recipient from Cincinnati, Ohio and his living donor, Danielle, a speech therapist from Pennsylvania–moved to donate by a billboard of Mark's four kids on the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

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After Donating a Kidney, Ironman Back to Training 6 Days a Week

Mike is an extreme athlete, participating in Iron Man Triathlon events. Yet even though Mike enjoys pushing himself physically, he took a break from competing to be a non-directed kidney donor.

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Couple Share a Life and a Kidney

Megan, born with only one kidney that was not high functioning, received a kidney from her husband Jake in December, 2018 at Ohio State.

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Chance encounter at Miami Valley Hospital leads to life-saving gift performed at Ohio State

Mike is an extreme athlete, participating in Iron Man Triathlon events. Yet even though Mike enjoys pushing himself physically, he took a break from competing to be a non-directed kidney donor.

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James Received the Best Blessing Ever

Craig discusses his decision to become a living kidney donor - a decision that saved friend James' life and gave him the chance to watch his children grow up.

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Donors Discuss Their Surgery Years Later

It's been more than five years since Jackie, Marsheen and Rollie each had their living kidney donation surgery here at Ohio State. All three were asked if they felt as good as they looked. The answer was 'yes'.

Our Providers

Tips From Our Experts

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Living Kidney Donation Best Option for Recipients

Todd Pesavento, MD, Medical Director of kidney transplantation explains why living kidney donation is the best option for kidney recipients and who can be a living kidney donor.

Our Latest Living Kidney Donor News

5-way kidney transplant chain saves lives at Ohio State

Living donor gives kidney to former colleague

Living Kidney Donation

The best option for a patient waiting for a kidney transplant is to receive one from a living donor. At the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center, a third of our kidney transplants are from living donors.

Why donate a kidney?

More information about living kidney donation:

What are the advantages for the recipient of a living donor transplant?

Who can safely donate a kidney?

What are the risks of donating a kidney?

Who pays for the kidney donation surgery?

What is recovery like after donating a kidney?

What if my religion doesn’t approve of kidney donation?

How to start the process to be a living kidney donor?

Evaluation Process

Living Kidney Donor Evaluation Process

Here’s what you can expect during your evaluation process:

Donation Process

Living Kidney Donation Process

Before Donation Surgery

Week Before Kidney Donation Surgery

Donation Surgery

Kidney Donation Surgery (First Day in the Hospital)

After Donation Surgery

Day After Kidney Donation Surgery (Second Day in the Hospital)

Care After Donation

Home Care After Surgery

Paired Kidney Donation

Patient Success Stories

Mother and son donate kidneys to ailing husband and father, 21 years apart

Kidney donation from one brother to another, half a country apart

Brother donates life saving kidney to brother

Mark’s once in a lifetime moment to meet his kidney donor for the first time

After Donating a Kidney, Ironman Back to Training 6 Days a Week

Couple Share a Life and a Kidney

Chance encounter at Miami Valley Hospital leads to life-saving gift performed at Ohio State

James Received the Best Blessing Ever

Donors Discuss Their Surgery Years Later

Tips From Our Experts

Living Kidney Donation Best Option for Recipients

Our Latest Living Kidney Donor News

Additional Information