Kidney Transplantation

Many more people need an organ for transplantation than there are organs available. Once a person with end-stage kidney disease has been evaluated and becomes a candidate for a transplant, he or she is put on a waiting list.

How long the wait for a donor kidney is depends on the urgency of the patient's condition, his or her blood and tissue type, the size of organ needed, how long he or she has been on the waiting list and the availability of a suitable organ.

The table below describes the kidney transplant rate at Cedars-Sinai and factors such as the total amount of time that all transplant candidates at Cedars-Sinai spent on the wait list, how many donor organs became available at Cedars-Sinai and how Cedars-Sinai's transplant rate compares with other kidney transplant centers throughout the nation. These data are reported to the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients.

* Person years are calculated as days (converted to fractional years). the number of days from the start of the period or from the date of the first waiting listing until death, transplant, removal from the waiting list or the end of the observation period.

** The expected transplant rate is adjusted for age, blood type, previous transplantation, time on the waiting list, peak PRA, and the interaction between previous transplantation and peak PRA.

Patient and Graft Survival Rates for Adult Kidney Transplant Patients at Cedars-Sinai

A successful kidney transplant depends on appropriate evaluation of the kidney recipient, expertise in the surgical procedures required to transplant the kidney and on-going monitoring after transplant to prevent kidney rejection or infections.

At Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, one-month, one-year and three-year survival rates are tracked for transplants patients.

In the table below, both the numbers and percentages of kidney transplant patients surviving one month, one year and three years are highlighted.

In addition, survival rates for kidney transplant patients at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center are also compared to survival rates expected for kidney transplant patients with similar ages and health conditions.

The one-month and one-year survival rates reflect patients receiving their first transplant between July 1, 2008, and Dec. 31, 2010. The three-year survival rates reflect patients receiving their first transplant between Jan 1, 2006, and June 30, 2008.

Cedars-Sinai is one of only 2 hospitals in the nation to have a statistically higher 1 year survival rate for transplants performed between July 2008 and Dec 2010.

* These statistics reflect adults age 18+ who were having their first kidney transplant. They do not include patients who were having other organs transplanted at the same time (a kidney pancreas transplant, for example).

** Observed survival rates use the Kaplan-Meier method to estimate outcomes for patients for whom complete follow-up is not expected. Because different cohorts are followed for each time period, it is possible for the reported three-year survival to exceed one-year survival.

*** The survival rate that would be expected for the patients served by the center, given the characteristic mix of the recipient and donor (age, disease and blood type, etc.) and the experience of similar patients in the United States as a whole.

The data in the first table below refers to transplants in which a person who had passed away provided the donated kidney. The second table refers to transplants in which a living person donated the kidney.

Patient and Graft Survival Rates for Pediatric Kidney Transplant Patients at Cedars-Sinai

The following table reflects survival rates at the one-month, one-year and three-year points for patients under the age of 18 when they received their first transplant.

The data in the first table below refers to transplants in which a person who had passed away provided the donated kidney. The second table refers to transplants in which a living person donated the kidney.

* These statistics reflect patients age 18+ who had their first kidney transplant. It does not include multiple organ transplants (such as a kidney and pancreas transplant).

** Observed survival rates use the Kaplan-Meier method to estimate outcomes for patients for whom complete follow-up is not expected. Because different cohorts are followed for each time period, it is possible for the reported three-year survival to exceed one-year survival.