Kidney Transplant / Living Kidney Donation

Living Kidney Donation at UCLA

The UCLA Living Donor Kidney Transplant Team at UCLA includes specialists in:

• Laparoscopic Urologic Surgery

• Adult Nephrology

• Psychiatry

• Radiology

• Specialized nursing

• Transplant coordination

Our living donor kidney transplant program has performed over 1000 adult and pediatric living donor kidney transplants. To insure the best outcomes for our donors and their recipients, Living Donor Nephrologists, Drs. Anjay Rastogi and Brian Young, conduct a thorough workup of our donor patients. This includes screening information, compatibility testing, comprehensive lab work, cardiac and radiology studies, and consultation with psychiatry and laparoscopic urology surgeons.

Over 95% of our living donors have their donor kidney removed (nephrectomy) by the laparoscopic approach, which minimizes their time in the hospital and shortens the post-operative recovery period. By using minimally-invasive surgical techniques, Dr. Peter Schulam, Chief of Endourology at UCLA, and his team make it possible for our donor patients to return to their normal routine within a shorter period of time.

For living donor/recipient pairs who are found not to be compatible either by blood type disparity or a strongly reactive crossmatch response, we have several programs that may offer them living donor transplant options. Dr. Gerald Lipshutz directs our Highly-Sensitized and Blood Type Incompatible Kidney Transplant Programs, and Dr. Jeffrey Veale directs our Living Donor Exchange Transplant Program. If you and your incompatible donor are interested in participating in one of these programs, please click on the links above for more information.

Interested donors may contact our program by telephone 1-866-672-5333 or complete a LIVING DONOR INTAKE FORMand fax to 1-310-943-3292 for review by our Living Donor Team.