The Life-Saving Benefit of the Living Donor Kidney Evaluation: A Mini Review

While there has been an appropriate focus on characterizing the risks associated with living kidney donation, little attention has been paid to the potential benefit to the donor of undergoing the living donor evaluation. This review highlights four studies from the United States and Europe across 30 years demonstrating that the living donor evaluation leads to the detection of previously undiagnosed medical problems in potential donors, including serious cancers. Potential donors should be counseled on the possible benefit of undergoing evaluation.