Self-Reported Outcome of Living Kidney Donation Correlates With Perioperative Complications not With Surgical Techniques

Martina Koch; Jeannine Wegner; Eike Bormann; Sylvia Kröncke; Sarah Riepenhausen; Philipp Neuhaus; Julian Varghese; Joachim Gerß; Claudia Sommerer; Barbara Suwelack

doi:10.1016/j.ekir.2025.06.052

Self-Reported Outcome of Living Kidney Donation Correlates With Perioperative Complications not With Surgical Techniques

Martina Koch^*, Jeannine Wegner, Eike Bormann, Sylvia Kröncke, Sarah Riepenhausen, Philipp Neuhaus, Julian Varghese, Joachim Gerß, Claudia Sommerer, Barbara Suwelack^*

^*Korrespondierende/r Autor/-in für diese Arbeit

2 Zitate (Scopus)

Abstract

Introduction: The German health care system lacks data on surgical complications and self-reported outcomes (SROs) of living donors. The prospective German Living Kidney Donor Registry, SOLKID-GNR aims to improve the assessment of donors’ medical and psychosocial risks. Methods: Data were collected before (PRE) and 3 months after (POST) living kidney donation from transplantation centers (TCs) and donors via SROs. We reported perioperative complication rates for different surgical techniques and correlated them with donors’ SROs. Datasets of 1020 donors from 30 German TCs were analyzed. Results: Donor nephrectomy procedures included laparoscopic (57.9%), retroperitoneoscopic (21.4%), open retroperitoneal (16.0%), or open abdominal nephrectomy (4.7%). Perioperative complications reported by TCs ranged from 9.8% (retroperitoneoscopic) to 17.1% (open abdominal), whereas those reported by donors ranged from 12.2% (open retroperitoneal) to 15.0% (open abdominal). Donors were discharged sooner and returned to work earlier after minimally invasive surgery; however, had comparable quality-of-life (QoL) after donation. The physical component summary (PCS) scores of the Short Form–12 (SF-12) were similar between the 4 surgical methods postdonation; however, they were lower in donors with TC- or self-reported complications than in those without. The mental component summary (MCS) scores of the SF-12 were lower in case of self-reported complications only. Despite 12.5% of self-reported complications, 96.4% expressed a willingness to donate again, and 94.1% felt well-informed. Conclusion: Although the surgical technique does not directly affect donors' QoL shortly after donation, minimally invasive procedures result in shorter hospital stays and a quicker return to work. Self-reported complications have a greater impact on mental QoL than those documented by transplant centers, highlighting the importance of subjective experiences during recovery.

Originalsprache	Englisch
Zeitschrift	Kidney International Reports
Jahrgang	10
Ausgabenummer	9
Seiten (von - bis)	3058-3069
Seitenumfang	12
ISSN	2468-0249
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ekir.2025.06.052
Publikationsstatus	Veröffentlicht - 09.2025
Extern publiziert	Ja

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The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support by the German Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF)), Berlin, Germany, Support-code: 01GY1906 and the Faculty of Medicine, University of Münster, Muenster, Germany. The authors would like to thank the living donors for participating in the registry and the medical staff of the transplant centers for entering the data. The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the funding institution. SOLKID-GNR is a prospective voluntary registry for living kidney donors. It includes not only information provided by the participating TCs, but also donor questionnaires blinded to the treating transplant teams. SOLKID-GNR was registered in the German Clinical Trials Registry (DRKS: 00023532). We received approval from the ethics committee of the Medical Association of Westphalia-Lippe and the University of Münster (2019-732-f-S) and the local ethics committees of the participating TCs before the start of the registry. The registry is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (grant no.: 01GY1906) and the Medical Faculty of the University of Münster. Funding sources had no role in study design, data collection, analysis or interpretation.

Träger	Trägernummer
Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF)
Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung	01GY1906
German Ministry of Education and Research

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10.1016/j.ekir.2025.06.052

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@article{3a2fe05dc32c4504a086495439095c3c,

title = "Self-Reported Outcome of Living Kidney Donation Correlates With Perioperative Complications not With Surgical Techniques",

abstract = "Introduction: The German health care system lacks data on surgical complications and self-reported outcomes (SROs) of living donors. The prospective German Living Kidney Donor Registry, SOLKID-GNR aims to improve the assessment of donors{\textquoteright} medical and psychosocial risks. Methods: Data were collected before (PRE) and 3 months after (POST) living kidney donation from transplantation centers (TCs) and donors via SROs. We reported perioperative complication rates for different surgical techniques and correlated them with donors{\textquoteright} SROs. Datasets of 1020 donors from 30 German TCs were analyzed. Results: Donor nephrectomy procedures included laparoscopic (57.9\%), retroperitoneoscopic (21.4\%), open retroperitoneal (16.0\%), or open abdominal nephrectomy (4.7\%). Perioperative complications reported by TCs ranged from 9.8\% (retroperitoneoscopic) to 17.1\% (open abdominal), whereas those reported by donors ranged from 12.2\% (open retroperitoneal) to 15.0\% (open abdominal). Donors were discharged sooner and returned to work earlier after minimally invasive surgery; however, had comparable quality-of-life (QoL) after donation. The physical component summary (PCS) scores of the Short Form–12 (SF-12) were similar between the 4 surgical methods postdonation; however, they were lower in donors with TC- or self-reported complications than in those without. The mental component summary (MCS) scores of the SF-12 were lower in case of self-reported complications only. Despite 12.5\% of self-reported complications, 96.4\% expressed a willingness to donate again, and 94.1\% felt well-informed. Conclusion: Although the surgical technique does not directly affect donors' QoL shortly after donation, minimally invasive procedures result in shorter hospital stays and a quicker return to work. Self-reported complications have a greater impact on mental QoL than those documented by transplant centers, highlighting the importance of subjective experiences during recovery.",

author = "Martina Koch and Jeannine Wegner and Eike Bormann and Sylvia Kr{\"o}ncke and Sarah Riepenhausen and Philipp Neuhaus and Julian Varghese and Joachim Ger{\ss} and Claudia Sommerer and Barbara Suwelack",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2025 International Society of Nephrology",

year = "2025",

month = sep,

doi = "10.1016/j.ekir.2025.06.052",

language = "English",

volume = "10",

pages = "3058--3069",

journal = "Kidney International Reports",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - Self-Reported Outcome of Living Kidney Donation Correlates With Perioperative Complications not With Surgical Techniques

AU - Koch, Martina

AU - Wegner, Jeannine

AU - Bormann, Eike

AU - Kröncke, Sylvia

AU - Riepenhausen, Sarah

AU - Neuhaus, Philipp

AU - Varghese, Julian

AU - Gerß, Joachim

AU - Sommerer, Claudia

AU - Suwelack, Barbara

PY - 2025/9

Y1 - 2025/9

N2 - Introduction: The German health care system lacks data on surgical complications and self-reported outcomes (SROs) of living donors. The prospective German Living Kidney Donor Registry, SOLKID-GNR aims to improve the assessment of donors’ medical and psychosocial risks. Methods: Data were collected before (PRE) and 3 months after (POST) living kidney donation from transplantation centers (TCs) and donors via SROs. We reported perioperative complication rates for different surgical techniques and correlated them with donors’ SROs. Datasets of 1020 donors from 30 German TCs were analyzed. Results: Donor nephrectomy procedures included laparoscopic (57.9%), retroperitoneoscopic (21.4%), open retroperitoneal (16.0%), or open abdominal nephrectomy (4.7%). Perioperative complications reported by TCs ranged from 9.8% (retroperitoneoscopic) to 17.1% (open abdominal), whereas those reported by donors ranged from 12.2% (open retroperitoneal) to 15.0% (open abdominal). Donors were discharged sooner and returned to work earlier after minimally invasive surgery; however, had comparable quality-of-life (QoL) after donation. The physical component summary (PCS) scores of the Short Form–12 (SF-12) were similar between the 4 surgical methods postdonation; however, they were lower in donors with TC- or self-reported complications than in those without. The mental component summary (MCS) scores of the SF-12 were lower in case of self-reported complications only. Despite 12.5% of self-reported complications, 96.4% expressed a willingness to donate again, and 94.1% felt well-informed. Conclusion: Although the surgical technique does not directly affect donors' QoL shortly after donation, minimally invasive procedures result in shorter hospital stays and a quicker return to work. Self-reported complications have a greater impact on mental QoL than those documented by transplant centers, highlighting the importance of subjective experiences during recovery.

AB - Introduction: The German health care system lacks data on surgical complications and self-reported outcomes (SROs) of living donors. The prospective German Living Kidney Donor Registry, SOLKID-GNR aims to improve the assessment of donors’ medical and psychosocial risks. Methods: Data were collected before (PRE) and 3 months after (POST) living kidney donation from transplantation centers (TCs) and donors via SROs. We reported perioperative complication rates for different surgical techniques and correlated them with donors’ SROs. Datasets of 1020 donors from 30 German TCs were analyzed. Results: Donor nephrectomy procedures included laparoscopic (57.9%), retroperitoneoscopic (21.4%), open retroperitoneal (16.0%), or open abdominal nephrectomy (4.7%). Perioperative complications reported by TCs ranged from 9.8% (retroperitoneoscopic) to 17.1% (open abdominal), whereas those reported by donors ranged from 12.2% (open retroperitoneal) to 15.0% (open abdominal). Donors were discharged sooner and returned to work earlier after minimally invasive surgery; however, had comparable quality-of-life (QoL) after donation. The physical component summary (PCS) scores of the Short Form–12 (SF-12) were similar between the 4 surgical methods postdonation; however, they were lower in donors with TC- or self-reported complications than in those without. The mental component summary (MCS) scores of the SF-12 were lower in case of self-reported complications only. Despite 12.5% of self-reported complications, 96.4% expressed a willingness to donate again, and 94.1% felt well-informed. Conclusion: Although the surgical technique does not directly affect donors' QoL shortly after donation, minimally invasive procedures result in shorter hospital stays and a quicker return to work. Self-reported complications have a greater impact on mental QoL than those documented by transplant centers, highlighting the importance of subjective experiences during recovery.

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105013392345

U2 - 10.1016/j.ekir.2025.06.052

DO - 10.1016/j.ekir.2025.06.052

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:105013392345

SN - 2468-0249

VL - 10

SP - 3058

EP - 3069

JO - Kidney International Reports

JF - Kidney International Reports

IS - 9

ER -

Self-Reported Outcome of Living Kidney Donation Correlates With Perioperative Complications not With Surgical Techniques

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