Mortality rates similar between living kidney donors, non-donors
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Long-term mortality rates were similar between living kidney donors and non-donors who had comparable health status, according to recently published research. Study investigators also identified risk factors for mortality and clinical outcomes among these donors.
“Long-term safety issues have not yet been fully defined in living kidney donors, including recovery of estimated glomerular filtration rate, health-related quality of life, risk for progression to end-stage renal disease and all-cause mortality,” Yaerim Kim, MD, of the department of internal medicine at Seoul University Hospital in South Korea, and colleagues wrote. “Furthermore, these outcomes might vary according to specific donor characteristics.”
The researchers argued that finding “an appropriate comparison group with similar health status” is a major challenge in determining long-term risk for kidney donors. For the study, they matched 1,292 living kidney donors from Korea to 4,387 individuals from the general population. Matching was done based on age, sex, BMI, eGFR, urine dipstick albumin excretion and previously diagnosed hypertension and diabetes.
Donors were followed for a mean of 12.3 years. During this time, 4% of donors died.
Researchers found no significant difference between the groups for mortality risk.
It was further determined that older age (adjusted HR = 1.11) and male sex (aHR = 2.48) were associated with increased mortality risk.
Regarding clinical outcomes, the most common comorbid condition that developed post-donation was hypertension (6.1% of donors). In addition, donors who were men and had higher serum phosphorous and total cholesterol, as well as lower eGFR values at the time of donation, were more likely to have eGFR of less than 45 mL/min/1.73m2 after donation.
“Donor safety is an important issue that is necessary to support informed consent for individuals considering kidney donation,” the researchers wrote. “ ... Considering that living kidney donors are usually young and healthy individuals, kidney donors should receive careful medical attention in follow-up to identify and reduce the risk for medical conditions that might affect the health of their remaining kidney.” – by Melissa J. Webb
Disclosures: The authors report no relevant financial disclosures.
Collapse
Read more about
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts