Kidney Exchange to Overcome Financial Barriers to Kidney Transplantation

Organ shortage is the major limitation to kidney transplantation in the developed world. Conversely, millions of end-stage renal disease patients in the developing world die because they cannot afford renal replacement therapy—even when willing living kidney donors exist. This juxtaposition between countries with funds but no available kidneys and those with available kidneys but no funds, prompts us to propose an exchange program utilizing each nation's unique assets. Our proposal leverages the cost savings achieved through earlier transplantation over dialysis to fund the cost of kidney exchange between developed-world patient/donor pairs with immunological barriers and developing-world patient/donor pairs with financial barriers. By making developed-world healthcare available to impoverished patients in the developing world, we replace unethical transplant tourism with global kidney exchange—a modality equally benefitting rich and poor. We report the one-year experience of an initial Filipino pair, whose recipient was transplanted in the US with an American donor's kidney at no cost to him. The Filipino donor donated to an American in the US through a kidney exchange chain. Follow-up care and medications in the Philippines were supported by funds from the US. We show that the logistical obstacles in this approach, although considerable, are surmountable. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.