German surgeons have carried out the country's first crossover kidney transplantation at transplant centres in Hamburg and Essen, after a court ruling making the procedure legal in certain circumstances.

Crossover transplants are used in some countries, such as Switzerland and Romania, when a healthy partner in a couple is unable to donate his or her kidney to the spouse, either because of blood group incompatibility or the potential recipient's sensitisation to certain antibodies. In a crossover transplantation a healthy person in one couple donates his or her kidney to the ill person in another couple, in exchange for a kidney from the recipient's healthy spouse.

In the past crossover transplantation was not done in Germany because it was considered illegal under the …