People who donate kidneys have a low risk of major complications, according to what is believed to be the largest study to date to examine the risks associated with living kidney donation via hand-assisted laparoscopic nephrectomy.
"The results of this study are extremely reassuring for individuals who are considering being living kidney donors," coauthor Timucin Taner, MD, PhD, said in a press statement.
"We found that this lifesaving surgery, when performed at experienced transplant centers, is extremely safe," said Taner, chair of the Division of Transplant Surgery at Mayo Clinic's William J. von Liebig Center for Transplantation and Clinical Regeneration, in Rochester, Minnesota.
Almost 90,000 people in the United States are waiting for a kidney transplant, and patients who receive a kidney from a living donor generally have better outcomes because the kidney usually functions longer than an organ from a deceased donor.
"Living kidney donation is an incredibly generous act with great benefit to the recipient. However, living donation is not without risk to the donor," note Xiomara Benavides, MD, also of the Mayo Clinic, and colleagues, in the study, published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.
Donors have expressed discontent that, in some instances, they had more debilitating and protracted recovery than they had been led to expect, they add, noting therefore that "a detailed understanding of these risks is essential to obtaining appropriate informed consent."
