@parboy, Thank you for your questions about wait time for a kidney in Arizona. As you may know, wait time for deceased donor kidneys across the country is an average of 3-6 years. This, of course, depends on multiple factors including blood type and the number and severity of illness of the other patients waiting. I hope this message explains the wait list a bit – the data can be complex, but I will do my best to describe the current kidney situation at Mayo Clinic’s campus in Arizona. Since kidney transplant patients wait such a long time, many patients investigate living donor transplant. Those patients who have a donor willing to donate, but who doesn’t match them, can also benefit from kidney paired donation where they “swap” their donor with someone else on the list who has a willing but nonmatching donor.

All transplant centers in the country are required to report data on transplants and wait list patients to a government organization called the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR). I would be very careful about using any website that doesn’t reference this data, as transplant centers only report to a limited number of organizations, all within the government. Unfortunately, while there is data on SRTR regarding the wait list, the detail does not include average number of months patients wait. The Organ Procurement Transplant Network (OPTN) uses the data from the SRTR and reports more detail, which I have included below. The OPTN is a public website, and you can search data on any transplant center using https://optn.transplant.hrsa.gov/data/view-data-reports/center-data/#. When I searched our kidney program in Arizona, I found the following data on blood group B patients on the list and the amount of time they waited before transplant.

For blood group B patients, as of October 29, 2017:
Total blood group B patients = 100
Those transplanted within 30 days = 6
30 to 90 days = 8
90 days to 6 months = 5
6 months to 1 year = 20
1-2 years =28
2-3 years = 11
3-5 years = 21

Another metric important to patients waiting is outcome. The SRTR gives a nice summary for each transplant center and includes information on how that transplant center ranks with the national average. You can find the Arizona kidney program summary here: https://www.srtr.org/transplant-centers/mayo-clinic-hospital-azmc/?organ=kidney&recipientType=adult&donorType=. This web page gives a nice summary of transplant rates, wait list data, and outcomes.

I hope this summary is helpful to you. I am happy to help with further questions. You can also email us at transplant-rst@mayo.edu. Thank you!
-Kristin