The Dutch Living Donor Kidney Exchange Program

Kidney transplantation is the optimal option for patients with an end-stage renal disease. The first successful transplantation with a living genetically related donor has been performed since 26 October 1954, when an identical twin transplant was performed in Boston. In the years that followed, efforts to enable non-twin transplants unfortunately failed because effective immunosuppression was not yet available. It took until the early sixties after the discovery of azathiopirine that also deceased donor kidney transplantations became possible. In the eighties of the last century the wait time... Mehr ...