Living donor transplant: Right vs left kidney

Core Tip

Core Tip: As shown by Khan et al in their recent work, there is mounting evidence that living-donor transplants performed using right kidneys can provide recipient- and graft-related outcomes as good as the ones obtained transplanting left kidneys. Importantly, in high-volume centres with experienced surgeons, right-sided living-donor nephrectomies are not associated with increased surgical complications compared to left-sided procedures. As traditional open surgery is being replaced by minimally invasive techniques, future research should aim to conclusively validate the safety and efficacy of laparoscopic or robot-assisted donor nephrectomy also in challenging clinical scenarios, such as right or multiple-vessel kidneys.