Outcome of renal transplantation with right versus left donor nephrectomy: a retrospective comparative study

Abstract

Introduction: Renal transplantation is considered to be an appropriate choice of therapy for patients with end-stage renal failure. There is a continuous discussion on the safety, efficacy, and main advantages for selecting between the left and right renal transplant. In this regard, our aim is to evaluate the role of left and right renal transplantation on possible complications and outcomes in a case-control study. 
Methods: The recipient patients who received the donated kidney from the right (n=28) and left side (n=24) were matched in age, gender, and BMI and included in this retrospective case-control study. The patients who were included in this study underwent donor nephrectomy between July 2018 and August 2020 in two hospitals in Erbil city. 
Results: The patients who received the left or the right-sided kidney were similar in operative time, 122.32 vs. 118.92 (P=0.3207), warm ischemic time/min; 1.39 vs. 1.46 (P=0.6417), graft function (P=0.5030), and preoperatively HB, 8.97 vs. 8.42 gm/dL (P=0.0913), respectively.  The  patients  had  similar  postoperative  hospital  stays  (5.5  days; P=1.000). The study found that 35.71% and 20.83% of patients required intraoperative  blood  transfusion.  The  incidence  rate  of  postoperative hematoma in patients who received left or right donor kidney was 3.58% and 4.17%, and the incidence rate of readmission was 7.14% and 8.33% and allograft rejection was 0.0%% and 4.17%, respectively. No other complications were observed in both groups after one year.  
Conclusions: This study showed that the patients who received left and right-sided kidneys had similar outcome and complications.