Recall of living kidney donors for long-term follow-up is worthwhile

H.J. Kloke, A. Rasing, P.M.M. Dooper, D.B. Pilzecker, C.W. Hooghof, E.M. van Ommen, A.J. Hoitsma

Thursday 14 march 2019

13:15 - 13:17h at Tropentheater

Categories: Klinisch/Basaal, Parallelsessie

Parallel session: Parallelsessie XV – Basaal / Klinisch 2

Background: Since 50 years, the number of living kidney donors increased considerably. We encourage donors to participate in yearly control visits after donation. However, long-term follow-up data of living kidney donors are scarce. With the aim to decrease the amount of missing data, we encouraged donors, by a letter, to visit the general practitioner (GP) for a control visit.

Methods: From 1968 until 2012, 1029 living kidney donors are registered in our center. Numbers specified per period are 134, 304 and 591 donors between 1968 to 1992 (period 1), 1993 to 2002 (period 2) and 2003 to 2012 (period 3), respectively. In 2017, we analyzed follow-up data collected during the last five years, showing available data in 22%, 19% and 52% of the donors for period 1, 2 and 3, respectively. Mean rate for the whole group was 38%. Because of this disappointing result, we started this project. We included donors without follow-up data registered for at least 5 years. They received a letter with an appeal to visit their GP. Also, a declaration of consent to register their data in our database, a note for the GP and a self-addressed envelope was attached. In case of no response within 3 months, a recall letter was sent. The last data were received until 9 months after starting the project.

Results: 635 of the 1029 donors met the inclusion criteria and got a letter. We received follow-up data from 293 donors, resulting in a overall response rate of 46%. The average age of the responders was 67 years (range 38-88 years). The average follow-up time after kidney donation was 17 years (range 6-49 years). From 193 donors (30%), we didn’t receive any reaction. The calculated average age of these non-responders was 63 years (range 30-98 years). The calculated average follow-up time was 18 years (range 6-49 years). The remaining group of 149 donors (24%) is heterogeneous; no follow-up was received because of not willing to participate, death, rehousing or no data received by the GP.

Conclusions: Before starting this project, the percentage of follow-up data (till 5 years ago) registered in our database was 38%. As a result of this project, this percentage increased to a mean of 67% and specified for period 1, 2 and 3 percentages are now 49%, 57% and 76%, respectively. This follow-up project demonstrates that it’s worthwhile to recall donors who did not send data for more than 5 years. The follow-up data will eventually contribute to a better understanding of long-term follow-up.