The effect of single or multiple arteries in the donor kidney on renal transplant surgical outcomes.

BACKGROUND

As the number of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients is increasing, but there are not enough living donors, it is necessary to broaden the criteria for candidates who can undergo donor nephrectomy. Thanks to surgeons' increasing experience with laparoscopic donor nephrectomy (LND), multiple renal artery grafts, previously considered a relative contraindication to donor nephrectomy, have become candidates for LDN. We aimed to compare the outcomes of donors and recipients with single artery and with multiple arteries in LDN.

METHODS

A total of 214 patients were included in the study. Patients were divided into two groups according to the number of donor arteries: donors with one artery (group 1) and donors with multiple arteries (group 2). The number of donor arteries, operative time, warm ischemia time (WIT), cold ischemia time (CIT), arterial anastomosis time, venous anastomosis time, the extent of bleeding, and preoperative complications were recorded to evaluate the preoperative data.

RESULTS

The mean operation time in group 1 was 90.3 ± 11.8 min, while in group 2, it was 102.1 ± 5.5 min (p = 0.000). WIT group 1 was 90.9 ± 4.3 s and group 2 100.6 ± 2.1 s (p = 0.000). Arterial anastomosis time was 12.25 ± 3.8 in group 1 and 22.5 ± 4.5 in group 2 (p = 0.000). No statistically significant difference was found between the two groups in other parameters.

CONLUSION

Increasing the number of donor arteries in renal transplantation (RT) operations prolonged the operation time on both the donor and recipient sides. Still, it had no negative impact on complications or graft function in the postoperative period.