Living donor nephrectomy.

The need for more organs for kidney transplantation is increasing. Cadaver sources for these organs are stable, therefore living donation must increase if the need is to be met. Less perfect kidneys are now being transplanted. The pool of potential donors is being expanded. The process of kidney donation is being made easier in an effort to increase the number of donors. The donor work-up is being streamlined. Laparoscopic donor nephrectomy has been introduced, and appears to be promising as a technique of lessening donor pain and suffering, while maintaining excellent graft results.