Medical Technology Makes Living Kidney Donors Possible

Living Donors Help Meet Need For Kidney Donors

POSTED: 5:18 pm EDT October 11, 2006

UPDATED: 5:38 pm EDT October 11, 2006

WASHINGTON -- On Wednesday, Morgan Wootten's son joined a special group known as the living donors -- people who donate an organ while still alive.

Living donation has become an option for a lot more people in recent years because of advances in medicine.

There are thousands of people on the waiting list for a kidney. Not long ago, almost all of the kidneys came from people who had died, but that's changing, and living donors are helping to fill a critical need.

Living donations have increased in the United States in the last 10 years, and now it's about 40 percent of all kidney transplants are from a living donor," said Dr. Janis Orlowski, the chief medical officer at the Washington Hospital Center.

In 1988, fewer than 2,000 kidney transplants involved living donors. This year, the number has jumped to almost 4,000.

Living kidney donors have long been possible because -- unlike with other organ transplants -- the donor doesn't have to be a perfect match. Also, better medications make organ rejection less likely.

"Our anti-rejection medicine nowadays is very good and is able to suppress rejection," said Orlowski, who specializes in kidney transplants.

However, anti-rejection medication can have side effects. In Morgan Wootten's case, the medication he took after a liver transplant 10 years ago apparently took a toll on his kidneys. Orlowski said that's not always the case.

"We have made tremendous advances in transplant, but it's not a perfect science and we are continuing to work," she said.

The demand for living donors came at a time when the waiting list for kidney donations continues to grow. In the D.C. area, more than 1,600 people are waiting for a kidney.