Kidney transplantationLiving donor kidney transplantation: chance for the recipient—financial risk for the donor?
Section snippets
Patients and methods
After a mean follow-up of 28 months 85 of 87 (97.7%) grafts showed function. Two organs were lost due to severe vascular or chronic rejection at 5 days and 24 months after transplantation. In donors, one hematoma (1%), one hernia (1%), and one acute psychosis (1%) occurred as the main postoperative complications. So far, none of the donors showed any problems concerning remaining kidney function after donation.
Using a questionnaire, we asked 80 donors of a kidney at least 6 months prior to our
Results
Of the donors contacted, 91% (53) reported to have no financial expenses due to donation; 5 (9%) of the donors had expenses, but only few of them clarified the exact amount and circumstances.
One donor had to borrow money to cover living expenses when he was not able to do his job. Another claimed the disparity between normal salary and payment from the insurance company while he was ill as a financial expense. The days for evaluation before donation were organized very variously: Some of the
Discussion
The financial risk of living donation is theoretically well covered by different insurances. However, some of the donors had to cover some expenses by themselves. Fortunately, so far in our center no major complications occurred and all of the donors went home in good health after donation. If costs are covered when a healthy donor loses his or her ability to work due to donation remains unclear since no donor has experienced this problem.1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
References (6)
- et al.
Am J Trans
(2002) - International Symposium on Living Donor Organ Transplantation: Essen, Germany, September 24–25,...
- German Transplantation...