Introduction: Laparoscopic donor nephrectomy has become the standard of care in most renal transplant centres. Many centers are reluctant to perform right laparoscopic donor nephrectomies primarily due to concerns about transplanting a kidney with a short renal vein.
Methods & Procedures: A retrospective review of 25 right and 24 left consecutive donor nephrectomies and their recipients was done. Patient demographics, preoperative, perioperative, and postoperative data were recorded. Age, gender and BMI were compared between groups using ?2 or Student’s t-Test. Continuous outcome data were compared with Kruskal-Wallis analysis and categorical data compared with Fisher’s Exact test.
Results: Patient demographics were similar between groups of right and left donors as well as right and left recipients.
Conclusions: Right laparoscopic donor nephrectomy requires less operating time and is associated with similar outcomes for donors and recipients as left donor nephrectomy. Right laparoscopic donor nephrectomy needs to be considered when multiple renal vessels are present on the left side and/or when function of the left kidney is greater than the right.
Session: Poster
Program Number: P397