One-third of living-donor kidney transplant recipients are started on dialysis before transplantation—even while their donor’s evaluation is proceeding, reports a study in
The retrospective study included 478 patients who ultimately received a living-donor kidney transplant, and who were not on dialysis when their donor was being evaluated for at least 3 months. The transplants were performed at five centers in Ontario between 2004 and 2014. The proportion of patients initiating dialysis before transplantation was analyzed, along with factors associated with this outcome.
Thirty-five percent of patients initiated dialysis a median of 9.7 months after their donor started