Modify Living Donor Exclusion Criteria

At a glance

Current policy

OPTN Policy 14.4.E: Living Donor Exclusion Criteria lists fourteen criteria that excludes individuals from becoming living donors. Most of these criteria remain current and important to protect living organ donors.

Supporting media

Presentation

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Proposed changes

The Living Donor Committee reviewed OPTN Policy 14.4.E: Living Donor Exclusion Criteria to ensure these criteria are up-to-date. The Committee found the majority of living donor exclusion criteria remain current and important to protect living organ donors. The Committee recommends four changes that may allow more people to become living donors safely. These changes allow transplant programs more autonomy in evaluating individuals with malignancies and individuals with type 2 diabetes for living donation. Additional proposed modifications address exclusion criteria related to donor coercion, and illegal exchange between donor and recipient, to ensure consistency throughout OPTN policy language.

Anticipated impact

• What it's expected to do
  • Allow transplant hospitals more autonomy in their evaluation of potential living donors with certain medical conditions such as low grade malignancies, and type 2 diabetes.
  • Allow transplant hospitals, potential living donors, transplant candidates, and families to make decisions together regarding living donation.
  • Align policy language to make it consistent with other OPTN policies.
• What it won't do
  • Create a list of types of cancers that exclude individuals from becoming living donors.
  • Remove restrictions that exclude individuals with type 1 diabetes from donating kidneys.

Terms to know

• Contraindication: Anything that prevents a person from receiving a particular treatment or undergoing a procedure.
• Diabetes: A disease in which the pancreas does not manufacture an adequate amount of insulin. As a result, the level of sugar in the blood is too high. A leading factor in heart and kidney disease.
• High Blood Pressure (hypertension, HTN): When the force of the blood pushing against the walls of the blood vessels is higher than normal because the blood vessels have either become less elastic or have gotten smaller. High blood pressure causes the heart to pump harder to move blood through the body. High blood pressure can cause kidney failure and heart disease if not treated.
• Living Donor (LD): A living person who donates an organ for transplantation, such as a kidney or a segment of the lung, liver, pancreas, or intestine. Living donors may be blood relatives, emotionally related individuals, or altruistic strangers. These may also include domino heart or liver.
• Malignancy: The presence of cancerous cells that have the ability to spread to other sites in the body or to invade and destroy tissues.

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