Assessment of Glomerular Filtration Rate and End-Stage Kidney Disease Risk in Living Kidney Donor Candidates: A Paradigm for Evaluation, Selection, and Counseling.

Living donor kidney transplantation is the preferred treatment option for ESRD. However, recent data suggest a small increase in the long-term risk of kidney failure in living kidney donors when compared to healthy nondonors. These data have led to a need for reconsideration of how donor candidates are evaluated and selected for donation. A Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) work group completed a comprehensive clinical practice guideline for evaluation of living kidney donor candidates in 2017, based on systematic evidence review, de novo evidence generation, and expert opinion. Central to the evaluation framework is assessment of glomerular filtration rate (GFR), which is used to screen for kidney disease and aid the prediction of long-term kidney failure risk after donation. Accurate estimation of the level of GFR and risk of kidney failure, and communication of estimated risks, can support evidence-based donor selection and shared decision-making. In this review, we discuss approaches to optimal GFR estimation in the donor evaluation process, long-term risk projection, and risk communication to donor candidates, integrating recommendations from the new KDIGO guideline, other recent literature, and experience from our own research and practice. We conclude by highlighting topics for further research in this important area of transplant medicine.

Strategies for Increasing Knowledge, Communication, and Access to Living Donor Transplantation: an Evidence Review to Inform Patient Education.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Inadequate knowledge of the benefits, risks and opportunities for living donation is an important, potentially modifiable barrier to living donor transplantation. We assessed the current state of the evidence regarding strategies to increase knowledge, communication and access to living donor transplantation, as reported in peer-reviewed medical literature. RECENT FINDINGS: Nineteen studies were reviewed, categorized as programs evaluated in randomized controlled trials (8 studies) and programs supported by observational (non-randomized) studies (11 studies). Content extraction demonstrated that comprehensive education about living donation and living donor transplantation involves multiple learners - the transplant candidate, potential living donors, and social support networks - and requires communicating complex information about the risks and benefits of donation, transplantation and alternative therapies to these different audiences. Transplant centers can help transplant patients learn about living donor transplantation through a variety of formats and modalities, including center-based, home-based and remote technology-based education, outreach to dialysis centers, and social media. Evaluation of these strategies and program themes informed a new Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN)/United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) public education brochure. SUMMARY: Increasing transplant candidate knowledge and comfort in talking about living donation and transplantation can reduce educational barriers to pursuit of living donor transplants. Ongoing efforts are needed to develop, refine and disseminate educational programs to help improve transplant access for more patients in need of organ donors.