Surgeons at Southmead Hospital in Bristol are preparing for their first paired live kidney transplant.

Patients who require new organs but their partner or relative is not a suitable match can be paired with another donor and recipient in the same position.

They would then receive the kidney of the other recipient's relative and vice versa in a swap.

The two donors would go in for their operations at exactly the same time, usually in different hospitals, and the organs would be transported to both recipients to finish the procedure.

It has been possible to carry out this type of transplant since non-related living donation became an option. But there was no framework in place to set up the donation until the Human Tissue Authority was formed in 2006.

The first paired kidney donation in the UK took place in 2007 and the first pooled donation – where three living donors were matched – was carried out at the end of last year.

The pair due to undergo the procedure at Southmead in the near future will remain anonymous until after the donation has been completed and will then only be identified if they wish to.

There were 16 paired living kidney transplants in the UK between April 2008 and March 2009.

Patients who require kidneys can register for the scheme with as many relatives as they want and then when a match comes up, both sets of donors will be considered.

Bristol has had a strong link with transplant surgery since the 1960s and continues to be the base for the national organ donor register.

The team at Southmead carry out about 45 kidney transplants a year. They have been involved in live transplants between husbands and wives since 1996, when the drugs available meant that donors did not need to be related.

Transplant co-ordinator at Southmead Hospital Kay Hamilton said: "We say to all patients that this increases the chances of getting a living kidney donor rather than a deceased one, which is better.

"When a kidney comes from a living donor it tends to be healthier and fresher and will work far better for far longer."

The first altruistic donor kidney transplant – where the living donor has never met the recipient – was carried out in the UK in 2007 and there have been three in Bristol since then.

"Altruistic donations and paired or pooled exchanges increase everyone's chances and improve the numbers of organs available for transplant," added Ms Hamilton.

Keith Rigg, Human Tissue Authority member and president of the British Transplantation Society, said: "As a surgeon, we often see people who want to donate a kidney to a relative, partner or close friend, but they are not able to do so because of a mismatch in blood or tissue type. Paired and pooled donation may offer these people a solution; they can give to another couple in the same situation for a compatible donation in return."