Mar 05, 2014 – What Risk?

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Health newsfeed for Wednesday, March 5, 2014

ANCHOR LEAD: PEOPLE WHO’VE DONATED A KIDNEY NEED NOT FEAR, ELIZABETH TRACEY REPORTS

Let’s say you’ve decided you’ll donate one of your kidneys.  What should you expect in terms of follow up in subsequent years?  Dorry Segev, a transplant surgeon at Johns Hopkins, says it’s really quite routine.

SEGEV: Once somebody donates a kidney they’re followed by their regular medical doctor on a yearly basis, and if there’s any indication that anything is going on that way we can pick things up early and take care of them early.  In essence, living donors, once they’ve donated, are still healthy human beings who just go through life like other healthy people do.   :21

That’s good news for those considering donation, Segev says.

SEGEV: Even if a tiny percent of the people in the United States who were eligible to donate a kidney donated a kidney it would eliminate our transplant list immediately.   :11

Segev’s most recent study demonstrates how very small the risk is for living kidney donors.  At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.