Encouraging Health

Due to the extreme organ shortage there is an ever-increasing demand for living kidney donors. Kidneys from living donors have a significantly better long-term survival rate than kidneys from deceased donors (approx. 20 to 30 years versus 10 to 15 years).

They also have better initial function, reducing the need for post-transplant dialysis. Until recently, kidney donation from a living donor could only be accomplished through a surgical procedure called open nephrectomy (kidney removal). This procedure requires a large, muscle-cutting abdominal incision, removal of a rib and a relatively longer hospital stay and recovery period. However, advances in laparoscopic surgery have made an advanced surgical procedure called laparoscopic donor nephrectomy possible. This procedure has significant benefits over the traditional open surgery for kidney donation.

Laparoscopy - also known as “keyhole surgery” - is a minimally invasive surgical procedure in which a special camera called a laparoscope is used to produce an inside view of the abdominal cavity. Surgeons use the laparoscope, which transmits a real-life picture of the internal organs to a video monitor, to guide them through surgical procedures. The laparoscope magnifies these images many times their actual size, providing surgeons with a superior view of the abdomen.
Laparoscopic nephrectomy is a minimally invasive procedure that uses a laparoscope to remove a kidney for donation. Laparoscopic kidney removal is considered minimally invasive because it only requires three or four small non-muscle-cutting incisions rather than one large muscle-cutting incision in the abdomen.

During the procedure, carbon dioxide is passed through one of the incisions into the abdominal cavity to lift the abdominal wall away from the organs below, creating more operating space to perform the surgery. The pencil-thin laparoscope and surgical instruments are then inserted through the other incisions.
At the end of the procedure, the kidney is removed through a 7 cm, incision in the left or right flank.

What are the advantages of laparoscopic donor nephrectomy?
Because laparoscopic donor nephrectomy is a minimally invasive procedure, donor patients experience significantly less discomfort, have a shorter recovery period and return to work quicker than a donor who has had traditional open surgery. Because the incisions are small, laparoscopic donor nephrectomy causes reduced post-operative pain and shorter hospital stays, and patients experience a quicker return to normal eating habits and daily activities.

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