Expert says kidney donation is safe

Donating a kidney has little health risk and the donor could live just as long as non-donors, according to a study.

Dr Dorry Segev, a transplant surgeon at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, analysed the long-term effects of donating a kidney by examining data from a national registry of 80,347 live kidney donors in the US from 1994 to 2009.

According to the report, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, there were 25 deaths reported in the first 90 days after donation surgery in the whole 15-year period.

The mortality rate after kidney donation was 3.1 per 10,000 cases, while the chance of dying after removal of gall bladder was 18 per 10,000 cases - almost six times higher.

Dr Segev said: "Donating a kidney is safe. Live donors start healthy and it's the highest priority of the surgeon and the entire transplant community to make sure they stay healthy.

"This study says we have succeeded. While there are never any guarantees with surgery, donating a kidney is safer than undergoing almost any other operation."

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