Long-term follow-up of 102 living kidney donors

This study evaluated 102 randomly selected living-related kidney donors who were operated between November 1975 and December 1996 after a mean follow-up period of 10.2 years (range 8 months to 22 years). The donor male:female ratio was 45:57, and mean age was 41.0 years (range 21 to 65 years). The average preoperative and last follow-up blood creatinine levels were 73.37 micromol/l (range 44.2-106.8 micromol/l) and 78.67 micromol/l (range 8.84-318.2 micromol/l), respectively (p:NS), and the corresponding average creatinine clearance values were 108.4 ml/min (range 100-130 ml/min) and 96.8 ml/min (range 27 to 125 ml/min) (p: NS). Four donors had 24-hour urine protein excretion above 0.1 gram (2 G, 0.7 G, 0.2 G, and 0.14 G, specifically). The donors' mean systolic blood pressures before, and after the operation on the last follow-up were 131.7 +/- 21.2 mmHg and 139.6 +/- 20.9 mmHg, respectively (p:NS). Nine donors (8.8%) developed hypertension which required anti-hypertensive treatment. The mean age of the hypertensive group was 48.0 years (range 30 to 65 years), whereas that for the nonhypertensive group was 39.4 years (range 18 to 76 years) (p <0.02). Only one donor (0.9%), a 41 year-old female, was diagnosed with chronic renal disease related to pyelonephritis. These results support the utilization of living donors for kidney transplantation, an option which helps broaden a limited donor pool.