Hand-assisted laparoscopic live donor nephrectomy: a case report

Live donor renal transplantation offers significant advantages over cadaveric renal transplantation. It yields significantly better patient and graft survival on both short-term and long-term follow-up. Laparoscopic donor nephrectomy minimizes the morbidities associated with the surgical procedure and allows a speedy return to normal daily activities. The operation also provides an atraumatic kidney subjected to minimal warm ischemia time and with adequate length of artery and vein, resulting in immediate functioning of the kidney after transplantation with a low rate of ureteral complications. A 37-year-old man was referred as a kidney donor for his brother. Both donor and recipient were hepatitis-B surface antigen carriers. Cross-matching and human leukocyte antigen test showed good compatibility. Left donor nephrectomy was performed successfully by hand-assisted laparoscopy. The warm ischemic time was 4.5 minutes and the graft kidney functioned immediately after transplantation. The donor was discharged from the hospital on postoperative Day 3 with good recovery.