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Donation by the Numbers

According to the official data from the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network more organ transplants occurred in the United States in 2024 than ever before.

“The 48,149 transplants represent an increase of 3.3 percent compared to the 2023 total and 23.3 percent over the past five years. These life-saving procedures were made possible by the generous contributions of 16,988 deceased donors and 7,030 living donors.

Transplant trends: More lives saved every year.

A total of 41,119 transplants were made possible through deceased organ donation in 2024. This is the first year the threshold of 40,000 deceased donor transplants was surpassed, which represents an increase of 3.6 percent over 2023. Deceased donor transplants have set new annual records each of the past 12 years.

Living donors enabled an additional 7,030 transplants. This was the second highest annual total, surpassed only in 2019. The OPO system continues to recover far more useable organs than more kidneys than are transplanted. “

Studies have shown that nearly 30% of recovered kidneys were discarded because transplant centers would not use them. The system must work together to increase utilization as America’s leading transplant surgeons, including SID&T board members advocate. The CMS regulations hold OPOs responsible for discarded organs when OPO’s have no control once the organs are delivered to the centers.

OPO performance measures should be based on reliable data – ventilated hospital deaths and organ yield measures already in place. Instead, the governing rule use death certificates, which are unreliable when verified health records are available. Bad data will yield bad results. Results put OPOs in jeopardy of being shut down or merged into larger OPOs causing immediate chaos. See our peer reviewed science page for the extensive number of studies calling out the failings of CMS’ performance metrics. Patients will be the ones who suffer.

Utilization increase requires cooperation

. Few are aware, even in Congress and at CMS, how remarkable this number is given the very, very small percentage of deaths that occur in a manner suitable for donation. There is no argument that improvements are needed. Traditionally, organs from donors with HIV, hepatitis B (HBV), and Hepatitis C (HCV) were considered too risky for transplanting despite negative serologic tests. Newer rapid, and accurate organs from high-risk donors can be screened for possible infections resulting in smaller infection risk. This could bring greater hope to HIV, HBV, and HCV patients waiting for a donor organ. Organs that come from doors with similar afflictions.

The ability to preserve and transport organs also add to the viability of usable organs for transplant. The use of organs that were once considered sub-optimal can decrease the gap between supply and demand.