Sheffield Kidney Institute

Renal transplantation from living kidney donors is still relatively marginal in most of the European countries. However, this source of kidney grafts may help to overcome in part the organ donor shortage of cadaveric donors. The living donor strategy implies correct and objective information about donation risks and completely free acceptance of the living candidate of the donation. In this paper, we reviewed the consequences of kidney donation on the living donor health, considering very short term (linked to the surgery), short term (effect of nephrectomy on glomerular filtration rate) and long term (risk of mortality, chronic kidney disease, proteinuria and hypertension) consequences of kidney donation.