Kidney transplant from a living donor

• An adult
• The donor must be healthy

Donations must be voluntary. The donor has the right to withdraw his consent at any time before the organ or tissue is harvested, without giving any reasons.

• The surgery can be planned and scheduled beforehand, in some cases before dialysis treatments are started.
• It is possible to avoid the sometimes long waiting time in the kidney transplant waiting list.
• A kidney transplanted from a living donor usually begins to function immediately.

• We perform thorough examinations of the general state of health of living kidney donors and especially the safety of the kidney donation, including various laboratory and imaging examinations.
• We monitor the health status of living donors at the renal outpatient clinic after donation.
• Examinations and outpatient clinic visits for living kidney donors are free of charge.
• Living kidney donors have a good prognosis and their quality of life is as good as that of the rest of the population.

• For a living kidney donor, surgery means 3–5 days of hospital stay on ward K5B at Meilahti Triangle Hospital, and the physician usually prescribes 4–6 weeks of recuperation leave for the donor, depending on their type of work.
• A living kidney donor visits the outpatient clinic for follow-up between one and 12 months after surgery, and then every 5 years.
• Hospital treatment and follow-up visits related to the surgery for living kidney donors are free of charge.