The high-grade match program of the South-Eastern Organ Procurement Foundation: status at four years

In summary, the HGM program is a voluntary, multicenter, prospective study of the SEOPF that is open to all transplant centers. The program extends mandatory sharing beyond the UNOS zero-antigen mismatch obligation, and uses preliminary crossmatching via ROP trays to try to facilitate transplantation of the highly sensitized patient. The program encompasses less than 7% of the cadaver kidney transplant activity of the participating centers, so it does not impact the majority of recipients. After 49 months of operation, it has significantly improved access to transplantation for blood group O patients, patients awaiting re-grafts, and those who are highly sensitized (PRA > or = 40%). Additionally, 92% of the HGM recipients have received an allograft with 2 or less antigens mismatched. Enrollment will continue until there is sufficient power to test the null hypothesis of equality of HGM and non-HGM transplants.