Full medical, surgical and psychosocial evaluation is necessary to evaluate all potential kidney donors.
Conditions that preclude kidney donation include uncontrolled hypertension, diabetes, long-term use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and family history of increased risk of renal disease.
Other factors to be considered for donors include blood pressure, BMI, routine cancer screening, screening for transmittable infectious diseases, vascular and structural integrity of the kidneys.
Acceptable renal function for donation is defined as renal function that can reliably maintain or provide an adequate glomerular filtration rate, at 80 mL/min for both donor and recipient, respectively, after donor nephrectomy and transplantation(Delmonico F).
Donation associated with a 0.2% major complication rate, an 8% minor complication rate and a death rate of 0.03%.
Approximately 6000 healthy adults undergo donor nephrectomies annually in the US.
Kidney donors have an increased risk of ESRD, but the risk increase is small compared with healthy non donors ( Muzaale AD et al).
Donors generally fare well after nephre to my, with most showing no increase in long term mortality and a lifetime risk of end-stage renal disease of less than 1%.
Most donors end up with the clearance of approximately 65 to 70% of the original pre-donation creatinine clearance value.