Tuesday, March 9, 2010
With the chronic shortage of kidneys for transplantation, more and more people are turning to family members, friends or other living donors. In fact, the number of live donor kidney transplants in the United States has nearly doubled over the last 15 years--from about 3,000 to nearly 6,000. But the question that has always accompanied the trend is whether people who donate one of their kidneys are putting their own health at risk over the long-term.Dorry Segev of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and colleagues studied 80,347 people who donated a kidney around the United States between April 1, 1994 and March 21, 2009, there were 25 deaths in the first 90 days after donation surgery during the 15-year period. That translates into a risk of 3.1 per 10,000 cases, which is lower than the risk from gallbladder removal.
But more importantly, the overall risk of death between the donors and a similar group of 9,364 people who did not donate a kidney was essentially identical within a year of the surgery and for the 12-year follow-up period.
That indicates that people do not put themselves at increased risk of shortening their lives by agreeing to give up one of their kidneys.
"Whatever happens when people donate kidneys, on average, it doesn't affect the rest of their lives and that has never been proven in a study and scope."
posted by emedinfo
@9:45 PM
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