CME on Transplantation is dedicated to online CME conferences, courses and presentations (slides with voice over) on transplantation, given by local and international experts. Its mission is to keep you up-to-date with the most recent developments on transplantation.
Presentation
"Current Issues in Living Kidney Donation" Dr. David Landsberg (biography) English - 2004-01-29 - 48 minutes
(47 slides)
Summary : In this presentation Dr Landsberg describes various aspects of living kidney donation, namely the high demand, its safety profile, the relationship of the donor to the recipient, and strategies to increase the potential for living donation.
The current epidemic of end-stage renal disease has drastically increased the demand for donated kidneys, as transplantation is the preferred treatment for this condition (1). Living donation is being used more and more lately in order to keep up with this demand, as is the case with renal transplantation in British Columbia.
Living kidney donation presents a clear benefit to the recipient and to society as well, in terms of reduced costs due to the avoidance of dialysis. Various studies on living donor outcomes after donation show positive results in terms of quality of life of the donor, although the donor's QOL could be affected negatively if there was a distant relationship to the recipient. Two small long-term studies of living kidney donors done with non-donor siblings as controls, showed no adverse effects on renal function due to donation (2, 3). Due to the high demand for donated kidneys, physicians are faced with the complex issue of whether to accept living donors who are not in perfect health. For example, an individual at risk for diabetes may want to donate a kidney. Dr Landsberg discusses how a physician might judge these situations.
Further strategies to increase the pool of living donors include donor swapping, donating to somebody on the waiting list instead of the originally intended (incompatible) recipient, cross-match positive and ABO incompatible combinations, and anonymous donation.
