Kidney Transplant
"The doctors, nurses, and social workers at the Hume-Lee Transplant Center were there for me throughout the entire process. I felt like I was part of a family whose only objective was my wellbeing."
- Dolores H., transplant recipient
The Hume-Lee Transplant Center has created one of the nation's most successful adult and pediatric kidney transplant programs. According to the OPTN, since 1988 over 5,000 kidney transplants have been performed and we perform roughly 350 transplants a year, based on organ availability.
Hume-Lee has the shortest average wait time for deceased donor kidney transplants in the region, so our patients are able to be transplanted earlier in their disease process, in some cases avoiding dialysis.
*Per the January 2026 SRTR report
Innovative therapies, cutting-edge research, and decades of dedication to providing the best outcomes for our patients allow Hume-Lee to offer the following advanced treatments:
- Deceased donor kidney transplant and Living donor kidney transplant (living related, living unrelated and non-directed)
- Living donor exchanges in the form of pairs or chains
- Our center participates in living kidney voucher programs--click here to learn more
- Preemptive kidney transplantation for patients with end-stage kidney disease
- Incompatible kidney transplants for donor-recipient pairs who are ABO (blood type) incompatible
- Desensitization techniques for patients who have antibodies that would increase chance of organ rejection
- Simultaneous pancreas-kidney transplants, heart-kidney transplants and liver-kidney transplants
- Donor nephrectomy using our state-of-the-art robotic surgical system, leading to reduced recovery times for our living donors
- VCU's Renal Rehab is a free rehabilitation program offered to help patients with frailty improve their strength, making them viable candidates for kidney transplant
- Transplants for carefully selected medically complex patients, such as those suffering from severe cardiovascular disease, obesity, diabetes, peripheral vascular disease and a previous history of cancers
- Our program is participating in the Increasing Organ Transplant Access (IOTA) initiative, a new Medicare payment model developed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) aimed at increasing access to kidney transplantation. Read the FAQs and see the Beneficiary Notification Letter for more information.