UCSF Medical Center

505 Parnassus Ave.
San Francisco, CA 94143
(415) 476-1000
https://www.ucsfhealth.org

UCSF Health is internationally renowned for providing highly specialized and innovative care. We are part of UC San Francisco, one of the top universities in the nation for health sciences research and higher education. By bringing together the world’s leading experts in nearly every area of health, we are able to drive advancements in treatment and technology that benefit patients everywhere.

About Our Kidney Transplant Program

UCSF has been using a minimally invasive procedure, called laparoscopic donor nephrectomy, to remove kidneys from living donors since 1999. We have performed hundreds of these procedures, making our program one of the most experienced in the country.

Laparascopic surgery has several advantages for donors:

• Decreased need for strong pain medications
• Shorter recovery time in the hospital
• Quicker return to normal activities
• Very low complication rate

Many patients have family members or friends who wish to donate a kidney but are not able to because their blood type or tissue type doesn’t match the recipient.  In such cases, the donor and recipient are said to be “incompatible.” UCSF offers several programs to help these patients receive a kidney.

• Live Donor to Deceased Donor Waiting List Exchange
• Paired Exchange Kidney Transplant or “Family Swap”
• Advanced Donation (“Voucher”) Program
• Blood Type Incompatible Kidney Transplant
• Positive Crossmatch and Sensitized Patient Kidney Transplant