ABSTRACT
Living donor kidney (LDK) transplantation is an important treatment modality for endstage renal disease (ESRD) worldwide. It is now widely accepted in the medical community that a kidney from a living donor provides the best avenue to timely transplantation, with better outcomes for recipients in terms of graft survival, renal function (with reduced cardiovascular risk) and quality of life.1,2 In some countries, living donors now provide more than half of all transplantable kidneys. Indeed, in Switzerland in 2002, living donations (n=83) outnumbered cadaveric donations (n=75). Moreover, in the USA between 1991 and 2001, the number of cadaveric transplants increased by a factor of 1.1, the number of living-related transplants increased by 1.7, but the number of livingunrelated transplants increased by a factor of 12.4.3 Thus, use of unrelated donors accounts for much of the noted increase in living donation, a result not only of decreasing reliance on human leukocyte antigen (HLA) matching with modern immunosuppression, but of wider acceptance of LDK transplantation on the part of potential donors and the community at large.
