Postmortal or living related donor: preferences of kidney patients

We studied the willingness and motives for accepting a living kidney donation in 61 kidney patients on the waiting list by a semistructured interview and a questionnaire on two occasions. Between both moments of measurement patients received general information on transplantation options. We tested whether demographic data, medical status data or quality of life correlated with treatment choice. Our results showed that 61% of the patients preferred living kidney donation to postmortal donation. Their main motivation for this choice was the better quality of the living kidney. The most often named reasons to choose postmortal donation were unwillingness to burden a loved one and fear of psychological problems in relation to the donor after transplantation. There was no statistical significant change of preference between both moments of measurement; however there seemed to be a tendency in favor of living kidney donation. Fewer years spent on renal replacement therapy correlated statistically significant with the choice for living kidney donation. These findings encourage the development of new strategies to facilitate the living kidney donation program, and confirm the need for the standard option of psychosocial support for patients.