ABSTRACT
Long-term medical and psychological risks for the living donor are generally minimal. However, the data supporting such claims come from a relatively small sampling of the total number of donors and almost exclusively from donors of northern European heritage (1,2). Thus, although most nephrologists feel that a donor who is normal at donation has very little risk of future renal disease or impairment of other organ systems as a consequence of donation, the real answer is unknown, especially for donors of color or with minor medical abnormalities. In order to define more specifically the risks of living donation, large registry data are needed. This is particularly important at a time when not all donors are considered completely “normal.”
