Donating Another Person's Kidney: Avoiding the Discard of Organs by Retransplantation.

BACKGROUND: Procurement and retransplantation of a previously transplanted kidney reclaim a functioning organ that would otherwise have been discarded.

METHODS: Case series of 3 retransplantation cases within the course of 1 calendar year.

RESULTS: These cases illustrate how to overcome the immunological, logistical, and technical barriers that have thus far limited the potential of this approach. Within this series, we report kidney reuse weeks and years after the original transplantation, as well as the previously undescribed "living donation of a deceased donor kidney".

CONCLUSIONS: Retransplantation of previously transplanted kidneys can be performed successfully and should be considered in the face of the current organ shortage.