Comparison of renal function after donor and radical nephrectomy

Glomerular filtration rate (GFR) is directly proportionate to nephron reserves. In this respect, it is known that the patients who underwent radical nephrectomy due to renal tumor are under high risk of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in the long term. In this study, it was aimed to compare post-operative renal functions of patients who underwent radical nephrectomy due to renal malignancy and who underwent donor nephrectomy as renal donors, to observe whether renal failure process develops or not, and to determine the factors that affect postoperative renal functions. 70 patients who underwent donor nephrectomy as renal donors and 130 patients who underwent radical nephrectomy due to renal tumor were studied. When we divided the groups as those with a GFR of below 60 mL/min/1.73 m(2) and those with a GFR of above 60 mL/min/1.73 m(2), we observed that GFR values of patients who underwent radical nephrectomy had a significantly stronger tendency to stay below 60 mL/min/1.73 m(2) compared to patients who underwent donor nephrectomy (p<0.001). When we divided the groups as those with a GFR of below 30 mL/min/1.73 m(2) and those with a GFR of above 30 mL/min/1.73 m(2), we observed that there were no patients in donor nephrectomy group whose GFR values dropped below 30 mL/min/1.73 m(2) and there was not a statistically significant difference between the groups (p = 0.099). If possible, nephron sparing methods should be preferred for patients to undergo nephrectomy because of the tumor without ignoring oncologic results and it should be remembered that patient's age and pre-operative renal functions may affect post-operative results in donor selection.