London, May 24 - Transplant patients are increasingly turning to social networks in their search for organs - and appear to be getting results, Daily Mail reported.

Researchers examined nearly 100 Facebook pages set up to find living kidney donors for patients aged from two to 69. The team from Loyola University Medical Center in Chicago found that such pages were surprisingly successful.

One in eight page subjects reported receiving a kidney transplant while nearly a third (30 percent) said potential donors had stepped forward to see if they were compatible.

While 37 percent of the pages were set up by the patient themselves, 31 percent were created by their children and 32 percent by other family or friends, researchers found.

"Use of social media could be an effective way to solicit kidney donation, but more study is needed to determine how to do this safely and with enough knowledge to make informed decisions," the Mail Thursday quoted study author Alexander Chang as saying.