October 11, 2005 - Johns Hopkins University Hospital has created a Comprehensive Transplant Center web site that includes a section on their Incompatible Kidney Transplant Program. This program includes:

• Blood Incompatible Transplant Program
  
• Positive Crossmatch and Sensitized Patient Program
  
• Paired Kidney Exchange Program
  
• Altruistic Donor Program
  

In a study published in the Oct. 5 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association, Johns Hopkins surgeons reported successfully performing living kidney paired donation transplants on 21 out of 22 kidney patients. Article from The Johns Hopkins University Gazette.

October 5, 2005 - A preliminary study suggests that kidney paired donation transplantation, in which incompatible donor/recipient pairs exchange kidneys so that each recipient receives a compatible kidney, had graft survival rates equivalent to compatible live donor transplants, according to a study in the October 5 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). Press release via EurekAlert.

"Clinical Results From Transplanting Incompatible Live Kidney Donor/Recipient Pairs Using Kidney Paired Donation" - abstract from JAMA

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University are reporting that "kidney paired donations" actually work. Of the 22 ''paired" transplants the researchers studied, only one failed, because of clotting problems unrelated to organ rejection. That patient eventually received a kidney from a dead donor. Four patients also had treatable immune-system reactions. There were no deaths. AP article via Boston Globe.