Purpose: Laparoscopic live donor nephrectomy is an emerging technique that
has not yet gained widespread acceptance in the transplant community due to
perceived technical difficulties. However, the potential advantages of dec
reasing donor morbidity, decreasing hospital stay and improving convalescen
ce while producing a functional kidney for the recipient may prove to enhan
ce living related renal transplantation. We report our early experience wit
h laparoscopic live donor nephrectomy.
Materials and Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 5
0 consecutive laparoscopic nephrectomies performed from October 1998 to May
2000 and compared them with 50 consecutive open donor nephrectomies, which
served as historical controls.
Results: Donor age, donor sex and number of HLA mismatches did not differ s
tatistically in the 2 groups. In the laparoscopic and open nephrectomy grou
ps mean followup was 109 and 331 days (p = 0.0001), mean operative time was
234 and 208 minutes (p = 0.0068), mean estimated blood loss was 114 and 19
3 ml. (p = 0.0001), and mean hospital stay was 3.5 and 4.7 days (p = 0.0001
), respectively. Average renal warm ischemia time was 2.8 minutes in the la
paroscopic nephrectomy group. Serum creatinine did not differ statistically
in the 2 groups preoperatively or postoperatively at days 1 and 5, and 1 m
onth. The rate of recipient ureteral complications in the laparoscopic and
open nephrectomy groups was 2% (1 of 50 cases) and 6% (3 of 50), respective
ly (not significant).
Conclusions: Laparoscopic live donor nephrectomy is an attractive alternati
ve to open donor nephrectomy. Laparoscopic nephrectomy results in less post
operative discomfort, an improved cosmetic result and more rapid recovery f
or the donor with equivalent functional results and complications.