Quality of Life after Hand-Assisted Laparoscopic Living Donor Nephrectomy

Abstract

Background: The laparoscopic donor nephrectomy has become the procedure of choice for living kidney donation in many centers. We report on donor-related quality of life (QoL) and social state after laparoscopic hand-assisted donor nephrectomy (HALDN) for living donation. Patients and methods: Between 2003-2011, a total of 79 hand-assisted living donor nephrectomies had been performed at our institution. For evaluation of QoL, structured questionnaire has been mailed to the donors. The questionnaire was created at our center based on a combination of WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire and the 36-item health survey (SF-36) with slight modifications. The QoL scores were compared to data of German healthy population. Mean follow-up time was 2.45 years. Results: The QoL scores were higher than those of the normal population in all domains. The higher quality of life in donors was independent of time since donation. When asked to rate their health at the time of the questionnaire, 91% rated it as good, very good, or excellent; 6% as fair and 3% as poor. When asked to rate pain around their scar, 91% rated it as mild or absent. 94% of the patients were likely to say they would donate again, if it were possible. For 6% of the patients was the overall experience very stressful. Conclusions: Laparoscopic hand-assisted donor nephrectomy is safe and the QoL changes and risks after kidney donation are low and comparable to that of the healthy population. Further, HALDN has compared with open donor nephrectomy no negative impact on the transplanted graft function.