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health advisory Hospital Diseases 2007-11-12 20:38:25

Answer:

You will be subject to ALL the usual risks of going through major abdominal surgery (i.e. intestinal adhesions, bleeding, post-operative pain, infection, and sometimes death) PLUS the fact that you will have one functioning kidney left. If you lose your lone kidney for one reason or another, then YOU will need dialysis and eventually also a transplant.

Being a live kidney donor is a SUPREME sacrifice on your part and you should be doing this WITHOUT any coercion from anyone. In essence, you are putting your life at risk for another person.

BUT, on the bright side of things, you will be extending the useful functional life of your kidney's recipient and how often does any of us get an opportunity to save another human being's life.

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University of Minnesota Department of Surgery, Minneapolis, USA.

This review describes the immediate and long-term risks to kidney donors. We reviewed their perioperative morbidity and mortality as well as their quality of life after donation. The overall mortality in our series was zero. Nationally, donor mortality has been estimated to be 0.03% (5). Our overall complication rate was 8.2% with only 2 (0.2%) complications considered to be major (16). Complications were associated with male sex, body weight > or = 100 kg, and inadvertent entry into the pleura during the donor operation. Most of our donors were discharged from the hospital in < 5 days. Risk factors for a longer hospital stay were age 50 or older and an operative time of 4 hours or more. The average donor quality of life after donation, as measured by the SF-36, was better than that of the general US population. This finding persisted for years after donation. The vast majority of our donors found the experience to be very rewarding and would readily donate again if it were possible. However, 4% were dissatisfied and regretted their decision to donate a kidney; these were most likely to be donors other than a first-degree relative and donors whose recipient died within the first posttransplant year. Living donation of kidneys appears to be relatively safe, with very few physical and psychologic complications. It may even improve the donor's quality of life. Living donors are an underutilized source of kidneys. We continue to advocate and encourage living kidney donation.

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