Compensated living kidney donation in Iran: donor's attitude and short-term follow-up.

INTRODUCTION Living unrelated kidney donation has a high rate in Iran, where a unique organ procurement model is running. We evaluated feelings and attitude of these donors after kidney donation. MATERIALS AND METHODS A questionnaire was sent to 25 kidney transplantation centers in Iran. It was designed to assess kidney allograft donors in terms of their reason for donation, their feeling after donation, and their attitude on keeping in touch with the recipients. Of 721 donors recorded in the national registry during the study period, we collected data of 600 living donors and their answers to the questionnaire. RESULTS Of 600 donors, 495 (82.5%) were men and 568 (94.8%) were unrelated to the recipients. Motivation for donation was stated to be purely financial by 224 respondents (37.3%) and purely altruistic by 11 (1.9%). Their feelings before discharge were complete satisfaction in 519 (86.5%), relative satisfaction in 69 (11.5%), regret in 9 (1.5%), and indifference in 3 (0.5%). Willingness to get informed of the transplant outcome and make connection with the recipient following transplantation was chosen by 457 (76.2%) and 400 (66.7%) donors, respectively. CONCLUSIONS We found that satisfaction of donors shortly after donation, on the one hand, and no reportedly serious complications in long-term follow-up of donors, on the other hand, may give the impression that the Iranian model may solve the problem of increasing demand for kidney allograft. Nevertheless, every country should build its own standards for living unrelated kidney donation consistent with its capacities and resources.