Recent Trends in Kidney Transplant in the United States

The number of new wait list registrants has increased in the last decade but not to the same magnitude as the increase in the number of end stage renal disease patients in the United States. The number of wait list patients has increased at a much higher pace due to the lack of kidney supply. The overall number of kidney transplants only increased slightly. Paired exchange kidney transplant is a viable source of increasing the availability of kidney transplant and also offers access to transplant to patients with immunologic barriers to their intended donors. Paired donor exchange results in similar outcomes despite recipients' having a higher immunologic risk profile. The kidney allocation system (KAS) was recently implemented and so far has resulted in more access for patients with very high immunologic risk and allocation of lower kidney donor profile index organs to younger recipients. Longer follow up is needed to determine the net benefit of the KAS.