Main description:

This book provides a complete guide to the evaluation, care, and follow-up of living kidney donors. Living donor kidney transplantation is established as the best treatment option for kidney failure. However, despite the tremendous benefits of living donation to recipients and society, the outcomes and optimal care of donors themselves have received relatively less attention. Fortunately, things are changing - including recent landmark developments in living donor risk assessment, policy and guidance.

This volume offers authoritative, evidence-based guidance on the full range of clinical scenarios encountered in the evaluation and care of living kidney donors. The approach to key elements of risk assessment, ethical considerations and informed consent is accompanied by recommendations for patient-centered care before, during, and after donation. Advocacy initiatives and policies to remove disincentives to donation and advance a defensible system of practice are also discussed.

General and transplant nephrologists, as well as related allied health professionals, can look to this book as a comprehensive resource addressing contemporary clinical topics in the practice of living kidney donation.

Contents:

Introduction*Organ shortage*Benefits to recipients of LKDT*Ethical foundation of donor autonomy within boundaries of 'acceptable risk'*Brief mention of Peter Reese work on 'harms' that may results from declining a donor candidate*Landscape of living donation - Epidemiology, trends
Informed Consent and Framework for Care*Core principles and processes of informed consent*Overview of the Living Donor Care Team - Roles & Responsibilities
Medical Evaluation*GFR, Albuminuria, Hematuria*Renal anatomy, Nephrolithiasis*Blood pressure*Metabolic*Cancer*Infections*Genetics - ADPKD, ApoL1, and other less common *Peri-operative screening
Compatibility, Paired Donation, and Incompatible Living Donor Transplants
Psychosocial Evaluation
Risk Assessment *New risk calculators for donor ESRD (Grams 'predonation', Massie 'postdonation')*New tools for recipient outcomes based on LD characteristics*Pregnancy-related risks and counseling
Surgical Approaches *Comparative data on outcomes, recovery, pain, cosmesis as per the surgical trials.
Follow-up Care
Policy & Ethics*Core Ethical Tenets & Unacceptable practices. *'Incentives'/paying donors (can be brief - Declaration of Istanbul, note as illegal and most countries, etc)*Donor Candidate identification (including emerging approaches like Social Media)*Non-directed donors*International donors*Disparities in access to LKDT and strategies to less*Mitigating barriers/disincentives to living donation - including Financial, Educational/SES/health literacy-related, etc)