The majority of patients on the waiting list are willing to accept a living kidney donor, but adopt an awaiting attitude towards their potential donors. Offering those patients professional assistance should be considered.

Summary In Europe, living organ donation (LOD) is increasingly accepted as a valuable solution to overcome the organ shortage. However, considerable differences exist between European countries regarding frequency, practices and acceptance of donor–recipient relations. As a response, the Coordination Action project ‘Living Organ Donation in Europe’ (http://www.eulod.eu), funded by the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Commission, was initiated. Transplant professionals from 331 European kidney and liver transplant centres were invited to complete an online survey on living kidney donation (LKD) and living liver donation (LLD). In total, 113 kidney transplant centres from 40 countries and 39 liver transplant centres from 24 countries responded. 96.5% and 71.8% performed LKD and LLD respectively. The content of the medical screening of donors was similar, but criteria for donor acceptance varied. Few absolute contraindications for donation existed. The reimbursement policies diverged and the majority of the donors did not get reimbursed for their income loss during recovery. Large discrepancies were found between geographical European regions (the Eastern, the Mediterranean and the North‐Western). As a result of this survey we suggest several recommendations to improve quality and safety of LOD in Europe.

Early home-based group education supports informed decision-making regarding primary RRT for ESRD patients and their social networks and may remove barriers to pre-emptive transplantation.

In: Transplantation (in press, to be published 2011)To refer to or to cite this work, please use the citation to the published version: Dor, F.; Massey, E.; Frunza, M.; Johnson, R.; Lennerling, A.; Lovén, C.; Mamode, N.; Pascalev, A.; Sterckx, S.; Van