How good are we doctors in conveying the concept of risk to our patients and our community?
I recently met someone who donated a kidney to a person who was not a relative. My impression was that the recipient was previously a stranger, but I did not press that issue. I was overwhelmed by the staggering generosity of that gift. I am embarrassed to say that I do not know how I would respond if I were asked to donate.
Shortly afterwards in the impossibly large volume of medical journals that crosses the desk of even a retired physician, and proving the hypothesis that a person only sees what they are prepared to find, I noticed a research paper estimating the risk of kidney failure in a donor following the removal of one of the normal pair. The risk does not appear to be zero. I want to use that paper as a base to continue writing about conveying the results of medical studies and of risk to the public.
Why did Mother Nature Give Us Two Kidneys?
In medical school, and in common public wisdom, it is universally recited that we only need one of our two kidneys to live. That is true. As it happens though, there is little or no information about whether we would live as long or as well! It is known that as people age, there is an expected gradual decline in kidney function. It happens sooner and faster in people with hypertension, diabetes, and so on. It is reasonable to speculate that if starting out from a half-normal position, that a single remaining kidney might run out of steam sooner without it’s helpmate. The best way to definitively settle the matter would be to randomly divide in half a group of people who had committed to donate, only allow one group to do so, and then follow the lives of both groups to see if the donors develop kidney failure more frequently than the donor wanna-bees. I do not see that experiment happening, but the information would be relevant to a person deciding whether or not to donate. Continue reading “Does Donating a Kidney Increase the Risk of Kidney Failure For a Living Donor?”