Experience of donation and quality of life in living kidney and liver donors

Abstract

Summary Italian guidelines on living donation demand that we ascertain the donor’s free and informed consent. Assessments to do so have to be conducted by an independent ‘third party’ who has nothing to do with the medical team treating the recipient. From February 2002 to December 2006, the Veneto Regional Authority’s Third Party Commission evaluated 201 living liver and kidney donors. A sample of these were contacted after their surgery to assess their living donation experience and quality of life (QoL); 81 were eligible for the assessment and 69 (85.2%) responded. All donors involved in the study completed an anonymous document that included the SF‐36 and a questionnaire on their donation experience. The majority (96%) of the sample expressed a positive global opinion of the experience. We concluded that the donation had positive effects on their QoL and that family support had a fundamental influence on their general well‐being, and their psychic balance in particular. Some crucial issues emerged, however, i.e. 11% of donors judged the information received before the operation inadequate, 17% reported a subjective perception of bodily changes after the operation and 14% were concerned about their current health: these findings emphasize the importance of informing potential donors thoroughly before they submit to surgery.

Long-term health-related quality of life of living kidney donors: a single-center experience

“…Most conducted examinations compare the HRQoL of LKD with gender-and/or age-matched healthy individuals. In fact, numerous studies report on equal or even better performance of LKD with regard to HRQoL [23,[27][28][29][30]. However, there are some reports about a negative impact on donor HRQoL [31,32].…”

Psychiatric evaluation of organ donor candidates in a university hospital and their anxiety, depression and quality of life levels

“…Reports suggest that the majority of living donors experience such levels of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) as similar to or exceeding that of the general population (26)(27)(28). Nevertheless, it has been consistently shown that select donors (<5%) experience significant psychological distress or retain highly negative attitudes about donation (29). In one study, potential donors who were overweight or obese, less educated, had prior psychiatric difficulties, were not white, or not first-degree relatives of the recipient represented groups at risk for poor HRQOL.…”

Living Kidney Donor Follow-Up: State-of-the-Art and Future Directions, Conference Summary and Recommendations

“…Evidence and anecdotes were presented that a small number of LDs develop persistent donation-related physical or psychosocial disabilities (25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34). Therefore, there was advocacy for a limited-scope long-term follow-up of all donors to accurately determine rates of a small number of predefined endpoints and to provide a mechanism by which donors could self-report rare events.…”