The kidney, the first organ to be used for living-donor transplants, is the most common type of organ donated by living donors today. In the Unites States, the number of living kidney donors now outnumbers the number of deceased kidney donors. Initially it was felt that only close family members could be potential donors. However, it is well recognized now that there does not need to be any direct relationship between the donor and recipient to achieve a highly successful outcome.Any healthy person is a potential kidney donor, including relatives, coworkers, friends, and acquaintances.
A living-donor kidney transplant offers significant advantage over its deceased-donor counterpart. Living-donor kidney recipients enjoy improved long-term success, avoid a prolonged wait, and are able to plan the timing of their transplant in advance. Moreover, they have a significantly decreased incidence of delayed graft function and increased potential for human leukocyte antigen (HLA) matching.As a result, living-donor transplants generally have better short- and long-term results, as compared with deceased-donor transplants. Of course, the risks to the living donor must be acceptably low. The donor must be fully aware of potential risks and must freely give informed consent. But as long as these conditions are met, the search for a living donor should not be restricted to immediate family members. Results with living, unrelated donors are comparable to those with living, related (non—HLA-identical) donors.
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Kandaswamy, R., Humar, A. (2009). Nephrectomy from a Living Donor. In: Atlas of Organ Transplantation. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84628-316-1_3
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