Living donor kidney transplantation in catalonia: comparison with cadaveric kidney donors

INTRODUCTION: We studied the renal transplantation results of living donor compared with cadaveric donor kidney transplantations. PATIENTS AND METHODS: One hundred thirty-six living donor transplantations performed during the period of 1990 to 2003 (group 1) were compared with a control group of 4304 cadaveric donor transplantations (group 2), paired 1:1 with group 1 patients, according to the period of transplantation, the primary renal disease, the transplant number, as well as the recipient and donor ages. RESULTS: There were no differences regarding patient or graft survival during a 10-year follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: The benefit of performing living donor kidney transplantations is the possibility of having the donor available even before beginning dialysis treatment.