Kidney Transplants Are Safe and Donors Live Just as Long as Everyone Else

We all admire organ donors, but how many of us would be brave enough to donate a kidney while we are still alive? Some would say we would donate a kidney to our beloved without hesitation, or very little hesitation, and the hesitation would increase when the association to the recipient becomes less apparent.

Many donors wonder if they will live long after their kidney has been given away. They may also wonder what would happen if their one remaining kidney fails? Some donors wonder if they could live the same lifestyle, participate in sports and be as healthy as they were before the operation. These are all real concerns and a new study put out by John Hopkins may put the donor's minds at ease.

The researchers found that there was very little medical risk stemming from the removal of one kidney and that the kidney donors go on to live as long a life as non kidney donors. The study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, as a 15-year study of 80,000 people who had donated a kidney. They found the long-term risks were minimal.

The study found the critical period for dying was in the first 90 days after surgery where there was a 3.1 chance of death compared 0.4 for non-kidney donors. After a year had passed the risk of death were pretty much the same for donor and non-donors alike. After 12 years had passed the researchers found that donors actually faired better than their non-donating counterparts.

This research confirms what physicians already knew; it is safe to donate a kidney. Dr. Dorry L. Segev, transplant surgeon and associate professor of surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, states that kidney donation is safer than almost any other kind of operation (there of course are no guarantees with any surgery).

The success rate after one year of donating a kidney is between 90 and 95 percent. The donated kidney usually lasts about 15 to 20 years.

According to the Kidney foundation of Canada,of the Canadians on organ donation lists, 70 percent of them are waiting for a healthy kidney. Perhaps these encouraging findings will spur on more kidney donations.

Kidney Foundation of Canada,

http://www.kidney.ca/Page.aspx?pid=183

National Office
http://www.kidney.ca/Page.aspx?pid=183

300-5165 Sherbrooke Street West
Montreal, QC H4A 1T6
Tel.: (514) 369-4806 / 1-800-361-7494

Sources:

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20100309/Kidneydonors_100309/20100309?hub=Health