MatchGrid Pioneers A Six-Way Kidney Donation Chain

Organ transplant lists are notoriously long. Sometimes a patient in need has to wait years to receive a transplant, if they are lucky enough to receive one at all. The most successful transplants come from living donors, but a faithful friend isn't always a medical match to her friend in need. Enter MatchGrid, a biomedical program designed to match potential kidney donors and recipients. MatchGrid was created by former WIRED editor and kidney recipient David Jacobs. His program established a method to match twelve people and create a six-way kidney transplant chain.

There are benefits to transplants from a living donor, but only organs like the partial lobe of a liver or a single kidney can be used from a living donor. A kidney transplant from a live donor can outlast that of a deceased donor, but unfortunately not all friends or relatives who are in a position to donate are a match to their loved ones. There are many factors that can interfere with a match such as age, blood type, and complex biological markers.

A six-way transplant isn't a single kidney split among six people. It's actually a chain of donors who can all successfully donate to their loved ones. This latest technique builds a chain of transplants wherein a sister can donate a kidney to a stranger while her sibling in need will get the kidney of another kind stranger.

MatchGrid used its own software algorithm to closer matches for transplants which lowers the risk of rejection and ensures a higher success rate for the surgeries. This particular series of operations at California Public Medical Center cleared six people from the transplant list. Not only did this chain of surgeries find well-matched kidneys for six patients, but it allowed more people to move up the list. So far, MatchGrid has only been applied to kidneys, but it is a revolutionary step towards faster donation lists from all types of living donors.

Source: Wired