Resource Document Addresses Medical Evaluation of Potential Living Kidney Donors

Release Date:
06/20/2008

Resource Document Addresses Medical Evaluation of Potential Living Kidney Donors

The OPTN/UNOS Executive Committee recently approved a resource document http://www.optn.org/SharedContentDocuments/Program_Specific_Living_Kidney_Donor_Med_Eval_Protocols.pdf
to help living donor kidney transplant programs establish or revise medical protocols for evaluating potential living donors. The document is advisory and does not reflect OPTN policy requirements for member transplant centers.

"Recent OPTN Bylaws and standards from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services require kidney programs to set and follow a protocol for living donor evaluation," said Timothy L. Pruett, M.D., president of the OPTN and UNOS and chair of the OPTN/UNOS Board of Directors. "This is a useful tool for programs to assess how complete their process is, or serve as a model for those who are continuing to develop their protocols."

The OPTN/UNOS Living Donor Committee developed the document based on a survey of protocols from programs performing living donor transplants, and with additional input from transplant practitioners and transplant professional societies.

The document addresses issues including:

* the risk of donation and the risk of medical screening for donation;
* the psychosocial evaluation process;
* common tests and procedures for assessing a person's medical suitability to be a living donor;
* factors which may rule out potential donation; and
* the need for ongoing post-donation medical evaluation.

The current document is primarily intended as a professional resource, but the Living Donor Committee intends to develop a parallel document with more context for potential living donors and the general public.

The Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) is operated under contract with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration, Division of Transplantation by the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS). The OPTN brings together medical professionals, transplant recipients and donor families to develop organ transplantation policy.

http://www.optn.org/news/newsDetail.asp?id=1100