Bootcongres

Background: Living kidney transplantation is the preferred treatment for patients with end-stage renal disease, because of better long-term recipient and graft survival, shorter waiting list times, and better quality of life for the recipient than after postmortal kidney transplantation. The health-related quality of life of most donors is high before surgery, but a small percentage of donors experiences physical or psychosocial problems after donation. Only limited research has examined predonation cognitions (motivation, expectancies, and worries) and health-related quality of life both before and after donation in living kidney donors. Methods: Of an ongoing prospective multicenter study in seven Dutch transplantation centers, predonation cognitions were examined with a newly developed questionnaire, together with pre- and 6-month postdonation health-related quality of life in 127 donors before donation and six months after donation. Findings: Improved wellbeing of the recipient and idealistic incentives were the most reported motivations for living kidney donation. About 25% of donors reported moderate to severe worries about the wellbeing of the recipient, whereas most donors did not worry about the medical screening, the surgery, or the physical consequences of the donation. At six months after donation, a minority of the donors experienced physical or psychosocial problems, such as pain, fatigue, concentration problems, or psychological distress. Discussion: The wellbeing of the recipient is most prevalent both as motivation and source of worry for living kidney donors. For the subgroup of donors who experience problems in health-related quality of life six months after donation, it is important to determine predictors for their health-related quality of life after donation.