KIDNEY DONORS LIVE LONGER

Background. A very important issue in living kidney donor transplantat ion is whether the donation is safe for the donor(1,2,3,4). The aim of this study was to examine survival and causes of death in kidney dono rs and to assess the renal function in those who had donated a kidney more than 20 years ago, Methods. A total of 459 living donor nephrecto mies were performed in Stockholm from 1964 until the end of 1994. By u sing national registers, all 430 donors living in Sweden were traced. Donor survival was analysed using the Kaplan-Meier method, Expected su rvival was computed using the Hakulinens method and was based on natio nal mortality rates. Results. Forty-one subjects had died between 15 m onths and 31 years after the donation, The mortality pattern was simil ar to that ill the general population, the majority dying of cardiovas cular diseases and malignancies. After 20 years of follow-up, 85% of t he donors were alive, whereas the expected survival rate was 66%, Surv ival was thus 29% better in the donor group. One third of the donors ( aged 46-91 years) who had donated >20 years ago had hypertension. Ther e was a deterioration in the renal function with increasing age, simil ar to what is seen among normal healthy subjects. The average glomerul ar filtration rate in donors aged 75 years and over was 48 ml/min/1.73 m(2). Conclusions. To donate a kidney does not seem to constitute any long-term risk. The better survival among donors is probably due to t he fact that only healthy persons are accepted for living kidney donat ion.