Paired Chain Donation

A nice letter to the editor in NEJM this week Sept 2010 reflects on the Kidney Paired Donation program from San Antonio, Texas. KPD, which matches a living donor with a compatible recipient in a tag-team approach among potential donor–recipient pairs, can achieve compatible transplant combinations.
Based on this letter, if performed at a national level, it would potentially result in approximately 2000 additional live-donor transplantations annually and reduce the number of patients on the waiting list.
This is a growing trend and many transplant centers are reaching out to do this in many different ways. Some via a paired donation and some via a chain that is started by an altruistic donor.

Have a look at the NEJM editorial
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc1004959
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20061914