TITLE:
Spouses Who Donate Seem to Be the Winners – A Questionnaire Study of Kidney Donors Long-Term
AUTHORS:
Annette Lennerling, Abdul Rashid Qureshi, Ingela Fehrman-Ekholm
KEYWORDS:
Living Kidney Donors; Long-Term Follow-Up; Motives; Sibling; Spouse; Questionnaire
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Nephrology,
Vol.2 No.3,
September
26,
2012
ABSTRACT: Background:Living donor kidney transplantations have been performed at Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg, Sweden since 1965. In this study we wanted to explore the living kidney donor’s long-term experiences of the donation. Methods: Of 1110 consecutive living donors throughout 1965-2005, 823 were available for our questionnaire study. Results:Totally 692 replied to the questionnaire, 65% were females. The most common relation to the recipients was siblings (284), parents (262) and spouses (96). Time since donation was median 15 years (2 - 43). The initiative to donate came from the donors themselves in 69%. The dominating motives for donation were a wish to help, worries about the recipient not receiving a transplant and the knowledge that one could live a normal life with one kidney. The majority of the donors, felt well informed about potential risks both short-term and long-term. Depression post donation was reported by few donors, 2.3% and persisting pain by 4.3%. Comparisons between sibling donors and spouse donors show a significant difference (p Conclusions:Our study shows that the donor population is in good psychosocial health. It is a positive progress that spouses can be living kidney donors - they seem to be the winners.