Kidney Transplant Wait Times Under Waiting List Expansion Scenarios

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2831868?guestAccessKey=45474923-36fb-4aa7-b7e0-15dd2eefd95f&utm_term=032425&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_medium=referral&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-86qGsEMAXjcvxN1mMM5dnwMAKlBwpRsKlQxAyLLiBPksmUoKZj3fVyRaiKLD4BqDt9FmxGwOU3fv33EftU4eO6GBmK6g&_hsmi=353393995&utm_content=tfl&utm_source=for_the_media Does the kidney transplant system need to change? A new study says yes — if the wait list for a kidney transplant were expanded to improve access, fundamental changes to the current model would be required to reduce or even maintain existing wait times. While there are about 90,000 people on the waitlist at any given time, per federal data from the fall, only about 25,000 kidney transplants take place each year. Adding 10% more patients to the waitlist would increase the average wait time by 4 months; adding 50% more patients would increase the time by almost two years. It would take an additional 2,800 kidneys to offset the 10% increase or 11,000 for a 50% increase, according to the analysis published yesterday in JAMA Network Open. Right now, it’s especially difficult for people with kidney failure (the most sick patients) to get on the wait list for a transplant, and once there, it takes them longer to actually get a new kidney. But it’s not just the extreme cases that would benefit from more kidneys and shorter wait times — that could save lives across the board. Overall, large increases in kidneys from living donors are likely needed, as are research and policy initiatives that would promote it, the authors wrote. (They did not discuss xenotransplantation, which has received a lot of attention but is still in early days of research.) https://www.statnews.com/2025/02/03/united-therapeutics-xenotransplantation-clinical-trial/?utm_campaign=morning_rounds&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-893QHpcfGevsrDTHwxSl3LoWBP8mMBa7xRPUl-r-FGzflSLBwHZRrROSsWTgObZiTnQOeREJUMKeNugoyEYxBBXzhHKQ&_hsmi=353393995&utm_content=353393995&utm_source=hs_email