Practices and Barriers in Long-Term Living Kidney Donor Follow-Up: A Survey of U.S. Transplant Centers

Background. Many have called for more comprehensive follow-up of living kidney donors, both for the donor’s benefit and to establish a high-quality database of donor outcomes. United Network for Organ Sharing currently requires transplant centers to report donor follow-up information at several time points after donation, but little is known about how frequently this information is obtained, or which barriers exist to compliance with United Network for Organ Sharing requirements. Methods. To assess practices and barriers in providing follow-up care to living donors, we sent a questionnaire to all program directors at U.S. transplant centers. Results. Few transplant centers are currently seeing donors for long-term follow-up. Many centers recommend that donor follow-up care be provided by primary care physicians, but follow-up information is rarely received from primary care physicians. The main barriers to collecting more complete information are donor inconvenience, costs, and lack of reimbursement to the transplant center for providing follow-up care. Conclusions. Significant changes are required to improve long-term donor follow-up by U.S. transplant centers.