Donor kidneys may be discarded due to ‘weekend effect’ at hospitals

Investigators have uncovered a “weekend effect” contributing to the worsening availability of donor kidneys in the United States. They found that kidneys that would normally be made available for transplantation were less likely to be procured from donors over the weekend (89.5% on the weekend vs. 90.2% during the week). Further, organs procured during the weekend were more than 20% more likely to be discarded than kidneys procured on other days, although the discarded kidneys were of higher quality on average than those discarded during the week, according to a new report.