For Potential Kidney Donors

Living Kidney Donation

What is Living Kidney Donation?

Living kidney donation is when a healthy person donates one of their two kidneys while they are alive. Getting a kidney from a living donor has lots of benefits for the person who needs a transplant, called the recipient. Every year, thousands of living donors donate a healthy kidney to a person who has kidney disease.

Interested in kidney donation?

If you are interested in donating to someone on the Legacy Transplant Services waiting list or donating anonymously, click here to get started with completing a donor health questionnaire.Please note that only interested potential donors can sign up to be evaluated. We are unable to take donor information or referrals from recipients.

Living Donor Criteria – Eligibility Criteria

Many different types of people can be living kidney donors; however, Legacy Transplant Services has specific criteria to make sure donation is the right choice for each person. Please see: Living Donor Criteria

Comprehensive Donor Evaluation – How It Works

Potential donors go through an extensive screening and evaluation process to ensure their health and safety. Each person may have unique testing needs based on their health and may include:

• Meet with an independent living donor advocate (ILDA)
• Labs (blood and urine)
• Imaging (x-ray, ECG, CT scan)
• Medical exam with nephrologist (kidney doctor) and surgeon
• Psychosocial evaluation with social worker and/or psychologist
• Create a care plan for your post-donation recovery (Donor Care Partner FAQ)
• Education with living donor nurse coordinator
• Nutrition screen by dietician
• Medication review by pharmacist
• Health maintenance screenings (colonoscopy, mammogram, pap smear, etc.)

Surgery

At Legacy, a minimally invasive approach is taken for kidney donation surgery. It can be performed either with traditional or robotic-assisted laparoscopy. This allows for smaller incisions, less pain, decreased length of stay in hospital, and faster recovery time compared to open surgery. Most donors are discharged the day after surgery and have a surgical follow-up visit 1-2 weeks after donation.

Paired Donation

If you are a candidate to donate but are not a good match for your intended recipient, we can help. There are several paired exchange options available. Click here to learn more about paired kidney exchange.

Forms

All living donors are required to fill out these additional forms:

• How to get ready for kidney donation
• Authorization to Use and/or Disclose Protected Health Information
• Patient Acknowledgment for Living Kidney Donor Evaluation
• Blood Pressure Screening Record
• Kidney Donor Nutrition Questionnaire
  

Contact Us

To start the process, click here to complete the donor health questionnaire online.

If you would prefer to complete paper forms or have any questions, please contact us at:

Legacy Transplant Services
1130 NW 22nd Avenue, Suite 400
Portland, OR 97210

Telephone: 503-413-6555
Fax: 503-415-8402
Email: livingdonor@lhs.org