Overview
- Hospital Vall d'Hebron performed a living-donor kidney transplant between two people with HIV this week, removing the donor’s kidney and implanting it in the recipient with robotic surgical techniques.
- Surgeons led by Dr. Enric Trilla and renal transplant specialists reviewed both patients’ antiretroviral histories and confirmed sustained viral suppression before proceeding, and both patients have been discharged and are recovering well.
- The operation was made possible by a government repeal published in the Boletín Oficial del Estado on July 7, 2025 that removed a 1987 ban on organ donation between people with HIV.
- Living donors with HIV must appear before a judge to verify legal compliance, a safeguard used in this case as hospitals operationalize the new rule and assess donor eligibility.
- Organización Nacional de Trasplantes data and clinicians say the change could increase available donors and shorten waits for roughly 50 people with HIV who join Spanish transplant lists each year, and Spain now joins a small group of countries allowing HIV-to-HIV transplants.