Overview of the Pediatric Kidney Transplant Program

Since 1986, Children's Hospital of Wisconsin has been offering new hope for children with chronic kidney failure through the Kidney Transplant Program. We have performed more than 180 kidney transplants.

The Kidney Transplant Program strives to provide the best quality of life for children suffering from pediatric chronic kidney diseases. Our goal is to assist families in understanding the care, medical issues and treatment options for pediatric chronic kidney disease and the steps involved in kidney transplantation.

Our pediatric kidney transplant team has a track record of performing unique, successful kidney transplants such as heart-kidney, liver-kidney and bone marrow-liver-kidney transplants. We perform transplants using donors who are relatives of the child, living nonrelatives, and deceased donors. We also collaborate with researchers at BloodCenter of Wisconsin to perform ABO incompatible transplants and work with potential recipients who are  highly human leukocyte antigen (HLA) sensitized donors. For some patients, this can alleviate the long wait for a kidney.

An indicator of quality of life for our patients, we are pround to report that 100 percent of patients return to school about a month after transplant.

The United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) is the private, nonprofit organization that manages the nation's organ transplant system under contract with the federal government. They provide up-to-date information on transplant trends including the number of children waiting for a liver transplant in the United States.