University of Alabama Hospital Kidney Transplant: Wait Times & Patient Data

The University of Alabama at Birmingham has seen its kidney transplant waiting list drop from 3,572 patients in 2014 to fewer than 1,000 today. OPTN data show that most of this drop happened between 2015 and 2019. During that time, about 4,056 patients were removed from the waiting list, while only 1,802 new patients were added. This led to a decrease of about 2,254 registrations over five years. The drop in numbers was not mainly because of more transplants. Many patients were removed for other reasons, such as death, becoming too sick for a transplant, or not being able to reach them. In 2018 and 2019, UAB removed 758 patients from the list because they could not be contacted.

Despite its much smaller waiting list, UAB still faces substantial demand for deceased-donor kidneys. The hospital performed 186 deceased-donor kidney transplants in 2025, down from 278 in 2020. With approximately 679 active patients waiting for transplantation, deceased-donor availability remains limited relative to demand. Although UAB is a large, established transplant program, even its dramatic reduction in waiting-list size still not enough to provide a short wait for a kidney transplant.

UAB has a strong track record of transplanting highly sensitized kidney patients. This includes people who are hard to match because they developed antibodies from prior transplants, blood transfusions, or pregnancies. In 2025, UAB performed 65 kidney transplants for patients with cPRA levels between 80 and 100 percent. Of these, 26 transplants were for patients with cPRA between 98 and 100 percent. The current waiting list for these groups is also fairly small. The current waiting list includes 35 candidates with cPRA between 80 and 97 percent and 39 with cPRA between 98 and 100 percent. Of these, 17 and 28 candidates are active, respectively. Because UAB continues to perform many transplants and has a smaller waiting list, it is a good option for highly sensitized patients.