Kidney Transplant Program

As the only program in New England that is entirely focused on pediatric patients, Boston Children’s Hospital’s Kidney Transplant Program provides comprehensive care to infants and children undergoing kidney transplantation.

The program is a part of Boston Children’s Pediatric Transplant Center, which integrates the efforts of experts specializing in heart, lung, liver, intestine and multivisceral, kidney and stem cell transplantation. Collaboration and innovation are aimed at comprehensive care of patients with end-stage renal disease, including medical management, dialysis and transplantation.

It is the only program in New England that is entirely focused on pediatric patients. Since the program’s inception in 1971, the team has performed 700 transplants.

The Pediatric Transplant Center is honored to announce that The Department of Health and Human Services recently recognized our Kidney Transplant Program as a national leader in its field. The program received a Silver Level Award

based on measurements of the program’s performance in key areas including how quickly patients received a transplant after being placed on the waiting list, post-transplant graft survival rates and patient mortality rates while waiting for an organ to become available.  

Boston Children's Kidney Transplant Program was the only program in New England – adult or pediatric - to be recognized at the Silver Level. Its scores for transplant rate and patient mortality rate while on the waitlist stood out among the other programs. 

For information on this honor, visit our News Room

Living Donor Swap

Boston Children's Hospital, in conjuction with other New England area hospitals and the New England Organ Bank, have coordinated an innovative donor swap called the "Live Donor Paired Kidney Exchange." The program allows a recipient who has a willing donor who is not an appropriate match to swap with another recipient-donor pair. The program is the first-of-its-kind in Massachusetts and is one of only a handful to take place in the nation.

Scientists in the Kidney Transplant Program are working to improve anti-rejection medication protocols with the goal of promoting optimal transplant outcomes while reducing unwanted side effects and complications. Learn more by visiting our innovative approach.