Welcome to Kidney Transplantation Surgery at Lahey Clinic. We provide comprehensive care for people in need of kidney transplants, as well as those donating kidneys and those who have already undergone transplantation.

Kidney transplantation and renal dialysis are the only treatment options for people suffering from end-stage renal disease. As a group, kidney transplant recipients have a significant survival advantage over those who don’t have transplants, and show marked improvements in their quality of life. More than 80 percent of kidney transplant recipients are fully rehabilitated, meaning they no longer have to undergo renal dialysis and are able to resume their full pre-treatment activity levels.

Kidney Transplantation at Lahey Clinic utilizes a multidisciplinary approach involving transplant surgeons, nephrologists (kidney physicians), nurse coordinators, nutritionists, social workers, radiologists and others.

History of Transplantation

The first successful renal (kidney) transplant was performed at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (now Brigham and Women’s Hospital) in 1954. Lahey Clinic surgeons began performing the operation in 1970. Since that time, the kidney transplant program has evolved to include live donor—both related and unrelated—as well as deceased donor renal transplants. Live donor renal transplants has increased because the list of patients waiting for kidneys exceeds the number of actual renal transplants performed in the United States by a margin of approximately 5-to-1 and far exceeds to number of organs available from deceased donors.

Surgical Highlights

• 1970: The first kidney transplant on a Lahey patient is performed by urologist John Libertino, MD.
• 1970: Lahey surgeons perform their first live donor kidney transplant.
• 1984: Lahey Clinic receives Medicare certification to perform kidney transplants.
• 1988: Lahey Clinic receives UNOS (United Network for Organ Sharing) accreditation.
• 1999: Lahey surgeons perform the first simultaneous live donor liver/kidney transplant in the United States.
• 2003: Lahey Clinic's first laparoscopic kidney donation is performed.
• 2005: Surgeons perform Lahey Clinic’s first dual kidney transplant, in which two kidneys are placed in one patient.
• 2006: Surgeons perform Lahey's first living donor kidney transplant following desensitization.