Donated kidneys are allocated to patients according to a number of factors including their waiting time for a transplant and the degree of tissue type match with the donor.
Tissue matching involves analysing blood and cell samples from the patient and the donor to identify the extent to which there are similarities between special classes of protein.
Tissue matching is particularly important in children as they may require more than one kidney transplant during their lifetime and a good match the first time will mean less difficulty in finding a suitable donor in the future. Children are therefore given high priority for well-matched kidneys.
All kidneys from deceased heartbeating donors are allocated according to a national system. This is based on five tiers:
- complete matches for children - difficult to match patients
- complete matches for children - others
- complete matches for adults - difficult to match patients
- complete matches for adults - others and well-matched children
- All other eligible patients (adults and children)
Within Tiers A and B, children are prioritised according to their waiting time. In the remaining Tiers, patients are prioritised according to a points score, whereby organs are allocated to the patients with the highest number of points. The score for an individual patient is based on a number of factors:
- Time on the waiting list (favouring patients who have waited longest).
- Tissue match and age combined (favouring well-matched transplants for younger patients).
- The age difference between donor and patient (favouring closer age matches).
- Location of patient relative to the donor (favouring patients who are closer in order to minimise the transportation time of the kidney).
- Three other factors relating to blood group match and rareness of the patient’s tissue type.
- Introduction to the new Kidney Allocation Scheme
- 2006 Kidney Allocation Scheme in Microsoft Word format
- Renal National Protocols and Guidelines
- Kidney and Pancreas Advisory Group