Paired exchange programs for living donors

Kidney exchange, also referred to as paired kidney donation, enables living kidney donation by donors who are not compatible with their intended recipients. Instead of donating directly to the intended recipient, candidate-donor pairs exchange organs to circumvent the incompatibility. This requires coordination: a registry collects data about incompatible pairs and about other types of participants like nondirected (altruistic) donors and compatible pairs, and selects appropriate matches by a manual or algorithmic process. We examine the common features and the idiosyncrasies of several successful paired exchange efforts around the world: in Korea, the Netherlands, Canada, Australia, India, the United Kingdom, the United States, and other countries.