Right Versus Left Laparoscopic Donor Nephrectomy: Initial 3 year Experience from a Single Centre Transplant Program

Laparoscopic living donor nephrectomy is the standard of care at high volume transplant centers. Despite this there is still reticence to harvest the right kidney laparoscopically because of concerns regarding the shorter renal vein, higher complexity of dissection and potentially higher complication rates and worse renal allograft outcomes. The aim of this single-center study of 72 consecutive laparoscopic donor nephrectomies was to compare left versus right-sided laparoscopic donors in terms of surgical difficulty, complication rates and outcomes.

There were 56 left-sided and 16 right-sided donors. There was no significant difference in surgical outcomes or complication rates. Similarly, the recipient surgery complication rates and allograft outcomes were no different between kidney sprocured laparoscopically from the left or the right. This single center study shows comparable donor operative parameters and recipient post-operative outcomes in left and right laparoscopic donor nephrectomies.