Becoming a living kidney donor
Donor surgery
In a living donor kidney transplant, doctors remove one of the donor’s kidneys and place it into the recipient’s body.
Donor surgery usually follows these steps:
1
You and the recipient will go to the hospital on the day of the surgery.
2
Before your surgery, doctors will:
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Numb your belly area — the numbness will last 12-24 hours. This will help lower your pain after surgery and the amount of pain medicine you’ll need right after surgery.
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Put a needle into your vein to give you medicine and fluids (called an IV)
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Put you to sleep with general anesthesia
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Put in a catheter, which lets urine drain from your bladder while you’re asleep and recovering
3
The surgery takes 3-4 hours. There are 2 types of living donation surgeries:
Laparoscopic (also called minimally invasive), where a surgeon will:
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Make small cuts in your belly
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Put a wand-like camera in the cuts so they can see your kidney. They put air or gas in you, so they can see better inside your body.
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Take your kidney out through a small cut
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Close the cuts with stitches
Open surgery: This type of surgery is less common. It may be done if there are problems during a laparoscopic surgery. A surgeon will:
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Make a large cut in your belly
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Take out the kidney through the cut
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Close the cut with stitches
After either type of surgery, the surgeon connects the donor kidney into the kidney recipient’s body right away.
Recovery from surgery
After surgery, living donors need time and help from family and friends before getting back to routine activities. Donors should always speak with their transplant doctor about the right time to return to their activities. Here are some tasks and the average time living kidney donors take to return to each.
Activities | Time it takes after surgery (These will vary for each donor) |
|---|---|
Stay in the hospital | About 1-2 days |
Drive a car | About 2 weeks |
Get back to work | Around 2 weeks if your job has less physical tasks, such as desk work or you work from home
4-5 weeks or longer if your job has more physical tasks or labor |
Get back to pre-donation activities | About 4-6 weeks |
Lift heavy items | About 6-12 weeks |
Activities
Time it takes after surgery (these will vary for each donor)
Stay in the hospital
Time it takes after surgery
About 1-2 days
Drive a car
Time it takes after surgery
About 2 weeks
Get back to work
Time it takes after surgery
Around 2 weeks if your job has less physical tasks, such as desk work or you work from home
4-5 weeks or longer if your job has more physical tasks or labor
Get back to pre-donation activities
Time it takes after surgery
About 4-6 weeks
Lift heavy items
Time it takes after surgery
About 6-12 weeks
Every donor is different. Some donors get back to their lives quickly. Others say they feel tired for quite a while after donating.
Since you do not know how you will feel, it is important to have family and friends ready to help you for as long as you need.
How well will my remaining kidney work?
Right after surgery, you will lose half of your kidney function. Over the next 3-6 months, your remaining kidney will get bigger and do the work of both kidneys. This also happens for the donated kidney in the recipient.
Caring for long-term health
After donation, living donors need to take good care of themselves and have yearly medical check-ups with their regular doctor.
All living donors need certain tests 6 months, 12 months, and 24 months after surgery. Ask the transplant team:
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What tests will I need?
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Where will the tests happen? Such as at the transplant center, a local lab, or at your own doctor’s office.
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Are there telehealth or virtual options?
The recipient’s insurance covers the above services.
Follow-ups are very important
Follow-up visits help the transplant center make sure donors are healthy.
As a donor, this is also your chance to talk about how you feel and how you can be as healthy as you can.
Donors should always go to follow-ups after donating and see their regular doctor every year. They should always let them know they’ve donated a kidney so they can check basic lab levels, including kidney function.