Living Kidney Donation

Book excerpt: This book provides a complete guide to the evaluation, care, and follow-up of living kidney donors. Living donor kidney transplantation is established as the best treatment option for kidney failure. However, despite the tremendous benefits of living donation to recipients and society, the outcomes and optimal care of donors themselves have received relatively less attention. Fortunately, things are changing – including recent landmark developments in living donor risk assessment, policy and guidance. This volume offers authoritative, evidence-based guidance on the full range of clinical scenarios encountered in the evaluation and care of living kidney donors. The approach to key elements of risk assessment, ethical considerations and informed consent is accompanied by recommendations for patient-centered care before, during, and after donation. Advocacy initiatives and policies to remove disincentives to donation and advance a defensible system of practice are also discussed. General and transplant nephrologists, as well as related allied health professionals, can look to this book as a comprehensive resource addressing contemporary clinical topics in the practice of living kidney donation.