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Updated: Dec 21, 2025
Robot-Assisted Kidney Transplantation
Published on: July 19, 2021
Is a Retroaortic Vein a Risk Factor in Laparoscopic Living Donor Nephrectomy?
Josef Mang1, Linda Hennig1, Nadine Biernath1
1Department of Urology, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and Berlin Institute of Health, Berlin, Germany.
Introduction:
In living donor transplantation choosing the right donor and donor side for laparoscopic donor nephrectomy is a challenging task in clinical practice. Knowledge about anomalies in renal blood supply are crucial to evaluate the feasibility of the operative procedure. Few data so far exist whether the existence of a retroaortic left renal vein has an impact on living kidney transplantation outcome for donor and recipient.
Materials And Methods:
We retrospectively analyzed 221 patients who underwent laparoscopic living donor nephrectomy between 2011 and 2017 for existence of a retroaortic left renal vein. Clinical characteristics and operative outcomes for donors and recipients were analyzed.
Results:
221 patients underwent donor nephrectomy between 2011 and 2017; 11 patients (4.98%) showed the feature of a retroaortic left renal vein, and in 8 patients (72.7%) out of those 11 the left kidney was chosen for transplantation. Mean preoperative serum creatinine was 0.77 (0.49-0.98) mg/dL and 1.28 (0.97-1.64) mg/dL at discharge. In recipients mean serum creatinine preoperatively, after 1 week, 1 month,1 year, 2 and 3 years of follow-up was 10.36 (6.09-20.77) mg/dL, 1.71 (0.67-2.72), 1.33 (0.70-1.89), 1.31 (0.95-2.13), 1.31 (0.98-2.13) and 1.33 (1.03-1.84), respectively. Neither donors nor recipients suffered from any operative complications.
Conclusions:
Laparoscopic living donor nephrectomy of a left kidney with retroaortic renal vein is safe for the donor, without limitation in the outcome for the recipient.
