Living Donor Research

Below are articles and posters published to date by the LDC. Additional articles are from the scientific literature and offer guidance on evaluating and providing appropriate care for living kidney donor candidates. 

Living Donor Collective 

Kasiske BL, Lentine KL, Ahn Y, Skeans MA, Eberhard T, Folken C, Wainright J, Larkin L, Nystedt C. OPTN/SRTR 2020 Annual Data Report: Living Donor Collective. Am J Transplant. 2022 Mar;22 Suppl 2:553-586. doi: 10.1111/ajt.16983. PMID: 35266611.

The ADR chapter includes reported data on kidney and liver donor candidates from June 2018 to March 12, 2020, and extends data collection through December 31, 2020.

Kasiske BL, Ahn YS, Conboy M, Dew MA, Folken C, Levan ML, Humar A, Israni AK, Rudow DL, Trotter JF, Massie AB, Musgrove D; Living Donor Collective participants. Outcomes of living liver donor candidate evaluations in the Living Donor Collective pilot registry. Clin Transplant. 2021 Aug 3. doi: 10.1111/ctr.14394.

A description of living donor liver candidates registered as part of the Living Donor Collective pilot program, including those approved and not approved for donation.

Kasiske BL, Ahn YS, Conboy M, Dew MA, Folken C, Levan M, Israni AK, Lentine KL, Matas AJ, Newell KA, LaPointe Rudow D, Massie AB, Musgrove D, Snyder JJ, Taler SJ, Wang J, Waterman AD. Outcomes of living kidney donor candidate evaluations in the Living Donor Collective pilot registry. Transplant Direct. 2021 Apr 22;7(5):e689. doi: 10.1097/TXD.0000000000001143.

A description of living donor kidney candidates registered as part of the Living Donor Collective pilot program, including those approved and not approved for donation.

Kasiske BL, Asrani SK, Dew MA, Henderson ML, Henrich C, Humar A, Israni AK, Lentine KL, Matas AJ, Newell KA, LaPointe Rudow D, Massie AB, Snyder JJ, Taler SJ, Trotter JF, Waterman AD; Living Donor Collective participants. The Living Donor Collective: A scientific registry for living donors. Am J Transplant. 2017 Dec;17(12):3040-3048. doi: 10.1111/ajt.14365.

A description of the reasons for establishing the Living Donor Collective and the types of information collected for the pilot program.

Posters

Challenges to monitoring living donor candidates long term: Understanding mobility of living donors in the Living Donor Collective. 

Friends and extended family donate kidneys less: Evidence from the Living Donor Collective for intervention planning.

Sociodemographic correlates of barriers to progression from living donor candidate evaluation to donor approval: Analysis of the SRTR Living Donor Collective.                                

Evaluation and Care of Living Kidney Donor Candidates

Claisse G, Gaillard F, Mariat C. Living kidney donor evaluation. Transplantation. 2020 Dec;104(12):2487-2496. doi: 10.1097/TP.0000000000003242.

Since 2010, professional societies in the United States and Europe have published guidelines on the evaluation of living donor candidates and the care of donors after donation. This editorial review provides a brief but cogent summary of these guideline development efforts.  

Garg AX, Levey AS, Kasiske BL, Cheung M, Lentine KL; KDIGO Clinical Practice Guideline on the Evaluation and Care of Living Kidney Donors Work Group and Evidence Review Team. Application of the 2017 KDIGO Guideline for the evaluation and care of living kidney donors to clinical practice. Clin J Am Soc Nephrol. 2020 Jun 8;15(6):896-905. doi: 10.2215/CJN.12141019. 

This review of the KDIGO guideline used 5 hypothetical living donor candidates and 12 guideline recommendations to illustrate how the guideline can be used in clinical practice.

Tietjen A, Hays R, McNatt G, Howey R, Lebron-Banks U, Thomas CP, Lentine KL. Billing for living kidney donor care: Balancing cost recovery, regulatory compliance, and minimized donor burden. Curr Transplant Rep. 2019 Jun;6(2):155-166. doi: 10.1007/s40472-019-00239-0. 

This article from the American Society of Transplantation Living Donor Community of Practice provides “standardized guidance for transplant programs to maximize financial reimbursement related to living donor care and to minimize financial consequences of evaluation, surgical, and follow-up care to living donor candidates and donors.”

Lentine KL, Kasiske BL, Levey AS, Adams PL, Alberú J, Bakr MA, Gallon L, Garvey CA, Guleria S, Li PK, Segev DL, Taler SJ, Tanabe K, Wright L, Zeier MG, Cheung M, Garg AX. KDIGO Clinical Practice Guideline on the evaluation and care of living kidney donors. Transplantation. 2017 Aug;101(8S Suppl 1):S1-S109. doi: 10.1097/TP.0000000000001769. 

Arguably the best evidence-based guideline for the evaluation and care of living kidney donors to date. Many of the recommendations are based on opinions, because there is little or no evidence from appropriate studies.

Slinin Y, Brasure M, Eidman K, Bydash J, Maripuri S, Carlyle M, Ishani A, Wilt TJ. Long-term outcomes of living kidney donation. Transplantation. 2016 Jun;100(6):1371-1386. doi: 10.1097/TP.0000000000001252. 

Systematic review of the published literature on long-term outcomes after kidney donation that was the basis for evidence used in the KDIGO guideline. Reviewers found that study quality was often low.

Hays RE, LaPointe Rudow D, Dew MA, Taler SJ, Spicer H, Mandelbrot DA. The independent living donor advocate: A guidance document from the American Society of Transplantation's Living Donor Community of Practice (AST LDCOP). Am J Transplant. 2015 Feb;15(2):518-25. doi: 10.1111/ajt.13001. Erratum in: Am J Transplant. 2015 May;15(5):1447. 

The American Society of Transplantation has developed educational materials and expert-opinion guidance for the evaluation of living donor candidates. Here it provides guidance for independent living donor advocates in the United States.

 Last updated: November 1, 2024