75% of Canadians on the organ transplant waitlist are waiting for a kidney (or two)

An artistic collage of kidneys, which are critical to living well.

Kidneys are critical to living well.

If you are a registered organ and tissue donor, one (or two) of the organs that you may be able to donate at the end of your life are your kidneys. They’re a critical organ when it comes to living well.

Kidneys that work well do a lot of really important things

They regulate water.
Kidneys remove water when there is too much and retain it when the body needs more.
They balance the body’s minerals
Kidneys keep minerals in check by pushing out extras, like sodium and potassium, through the urine.
They remove waste
Kidneys help your body rid itself of wasteful products that it doesn’t need, like urea and creatinine, which are made when the body breaks down protein.
They produce hormones
Kidneys produce hormones that circulate in the bloodstream and regulate blood pressure, red cell production, and calcium balance.

When the kidneys aren’t functioning properly or are damaged, a diagnosis of Chronic Kidney Disease is likely. Early diagnosis allows for those with CKD to to take steps to preserve their remaining kidney function. However, CKD can lead to kidney failure, or end-stage kidney disease. That means, the kidneys can no longer do their job.

When kidneys fail, kidney transplant is an option

End-stage kidney disease means the end of your kidney function: your kidneys are functioning at less than 15% and no longer adequately filter your blood. If your kidneys fail, there are typically three treatment options:

Different forms of dialysis
Non-dialysis support care
Kidney transplant

Kidney disease and kidney transplant facts*

1 in 10 Canadians has kidney disease (that’s about 4 million people!) 1
77% of Canadians on the transplant waitlist are waiting for a kidney transplant 2
90% of adults who receive a kidney transplant from a living donor survive more than five years.
82% of adults who received a kidney from a deceased donor survive more than five years.
The median wait time for a deceased kidney donor is 3 years, 9 months.

*Adapted from The Kidney Foundation of Canada. https://kidney.ca/KFOC/media/images/PDFs/Facing-the-Facts-2022.pdf

1 Manns, Braden et al. “The Financial Impact of Advanced Kidney Disease on Canada Pension Plan and Private Disability Insurance Costs” Canadian journal of kidney health and disease vol. 4 2054358117703986. 17 Apr. 2017, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5406196/

2 Canadian Institute for Health Information. e‐Statistics Report on Transplant, Waiting List and Donor Statistics, 2020, https://www.cihi.ca/sites/default/files/document/corr‐transplant‐wait‐list‐donor‐stats‐2020‐en.xlsx