March is National Kidney Disease Awareness Month, and AAKP wants you to recognize this month by becoming a leader in your healthcare. This means educating yourself about the latest information about kidney disease, treatments and risk factors, and using it to improve the quality of your care.
 
Quick kidney transplant facts:

• In 2007, 15,291 kidney transplants were performed. 9,721 were from deceased donors and 5,570 kidneys were from living donors.
• California, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Texas performed the most kidney transplants in 2007.
• 9,396 men and 5,895 women received a kidney transplant in 2007.
• The kidney is the most frequent type of organ donation. For the donor, there is little risk in living with one kidney because the remaining kidney compensates to do the work of both kidneys.
• In 1954, the kidney was the first human organ to be transplanted successfully.

 This information originally appeared on the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) Web site, www.unos.org.

This article originally appeared in the March 2008 issue of Kidney Transplant Today.