The US Is Throwing Away At Least 3,500 Donated Kidneys Every Year, Study Finds

(CNN) — There are currently 93,000 people in the United States on a waiting list for a donated kidney, yet at least 3,500 donated kidneys are discarded every year, according to a study published Monday in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine. The lack of organs for kidney failure patients is a major public health problem and one that President Donald Trump addressed in July when he signed an executive order promising to transform kidney care in this country. More than 37 million Americans have chronic kidney disease and roughly 5,000 die each year while on the kidney waiting list. That’s about 12 people each day, making kidney disease the ninth leading cause of death in the United States. In this new study, researchers looked at the number of deceased donors with organs offered to kidney transplant centers between 2004 and 2014. Over that time period, 156,089 kidneys were donated; 128,102 were transplanted; 27,987 were discarded. That means more than 17% of kidneys donated in this United States were discarded. Since the end of the study period in 2014, the number of discarded kidneys has increased. In 2016, 3,631 donated kidneys — about 20% — were discarded, according to the researchers. In comparison, in France, only about 9% of donated kidneys were discarded during the study period. The difference was because, in France, doctors were more willing to use older kidneys and kidneys from people who had other ailments such as diabetes or hypertension. Resea...
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