German recommendations for pretransplantation donor kidney biopsies

This manuscript reviews the data about the histopathologic and develops recommendations to standardise and improve the biopsy procedure, the biopsy handling, the histopathological evaluation, the communication of results and the collection of data from pretransplantation kidney biopsies of deceased donors in Germany.

The recommendations are based on this literature review, on discussions at two workshops held by the German Society of Pathology and the German Organ Transplantation Foundation and on personal experiences of the authors.

These German recommendations advocate the use of punch biopsies, paraffin embedding and detailed descriptive reporting of histopathological findings.

These recommendations constitute only a starting point. Periodical revisions will help to simplify and optimise the recommendations with the ultimate goal to prospectively gather data for the elaboration of a computer-based algorithm that allows the exact prediction of transplantation outcome for a given match of donor and recipient.