Four-Way Kidney Exchange Transplant With Desensitization Increases Access to Living-Donor Kidney Transplant: First...

This study reports our experience of the first 4-way kidney exchange transplant combined with desensitization in India, which allows increased access to living-donor kidney transplant for sensitized patients.

Four-way kidney exchange transplant procedures were approved by the ethics committee of our institution and the Organ Transplantation Authorization Committee of state governments of India (as per the Transplantation of Human Organs Act of India). The protocols conformed to Declaration of Istanbul principles and the ethical guidelines of the 1975 Helsinki Declaration. Written informed consent was obtained from patients, donors, and their guardians.

In April 2016, our transplant team completed simultaneous 4-way kidney exchange transplant procedures without any medical (rejection and infections) or surgical complications. Reasons for being included for kidney exchange transplant were ABO incom-patible (2 recipients) and sensitization (2 recipients). All 4 recipients had stable graft function with no proteinuria and donor-specific antibody at 11-month follow-up on standard triple immunosup-pression. Patient and graft survival rates were both 100%.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first single-center report of 4-way kidney exchange transplant combined with desensitization from India. This procedure has the potential to expand living-donor kidney transplant in disadvantaged groups (eg, sensitized patients). Recipients who are hard to match due to high panel reactive antibody and difficult to desensitize due to strong donor-specific antibodies can receive a transplant with a combination of kidney exchange and desensitization. Our study suggests that 4-way kidney exchange transplant can be performed in developing countries (India) similar to that shown in programs in developed countries with team work, kidney exchange registry, and counseling.