Health Highlights: Dec. 10, 2010 A U.S. pilot program that helps arrange kidney exchanges had its first success this week when two participants received new kidneys.
The United Network for Organ Sharing was launched in October to assist "kidney paired donation," where a person donates a kidney to a stranger so that their relative or friend can receive a kidney in return, the Associated Press reported. On Monday, the project's first transplants were performed in Lebanon, N.H. and St. Louis. Kathy Niedzwiecki received a kidney from Rebecca Burkes, while Burke's fiance, Ken Crowder, received a kidney from Niedzwiecki's sister-in-law, Catherine Richard. The new national program includes 77 transplant centers that will submit information about patients and donors to a database. There are fewer than 17,000 kidney transplants performed in the U.S. each year, but experts believe the kidney exchange project could lead to 2,000 to 3,000 more transplants annually, AP reported.
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