Kidney-Alone Transplant (KAT) candidates may be disadvantaged by the allocation priority given to multi-organ transplant (MOT) candidates. This study identified potential KAT candidates not receiving a given kidney offer due to its allocation for MOT. Using the OPTN database, we identified deceased donors from 2002-2017 that had one kidney allocated for MOT and the other kidney allocated for KAT or simultaneous pancreas-kidney transplant (SPK) (n=7,378). Potential Transplant Recipient data was used to identify the “next-sequential KAT candidate” that would have received a given kidney offer had it not been allocated to a higher prioritized MOT candidate. In this analysis, next-sequential KAT candidates were younger (p<0.001), more likely to be racial/ethnic minorities (p<0.001), and more highly-sensitized than MOT recipients (p<0.001). 2,113 (28.6%) next-sequential KAT candidates subsequently either died or were removed from the waiting list without receiving a transplant. In a multivariable model, despite adjacent position on the kidney match-run, mortality risk was significantly higher for next-sequential KAT candidates compared to KAT/SPK recipients (hazard ratio 1.55, 95% confidence interval 1.44, 1.66). These results highlight implications of MOT allocation prioritization, and potential consequences to KAT candidates prioritized below MOT candidates.
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