A procedure called laparoscopic nephrectomy has made kidney donation easier, and a new study shows that once people find out about it, they are more eager to give. Further, the study from the University of Maryland Medical Center shows that people who need transplants find it easier to ask friends or loved ones to sacrifice a kidney when it no longer means losing many weeks of work for recuperation. In the new procedure, surgeons remove the kidney through a small incision.
Patients are back to normal activity within two weeks, the study authors write.
We believe that this less invasive approach will have a tremendous impact for thousands of people who need a kidney transplant. Bartlett is professor of surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and director of transplant surgery at the University of Maryland Medical Center, in Baltimore. The surgeons also find that it is easier for patients to recruit donors with the laparoscopic technique. A third of the donors who underwent the new type of procedure were unrelated to the kidney recipients or were only distant relatives. Nearly four out of 10 donors traveled from out of state to donate.