BOSTON—Researchers who examined renal outcomes in obese living kidney donors observed no increased incidence of hypertension, proteinuria, or renal dysfunction compared with non-obese donors at one year after nephrectomy, according to a report presented at the 2012 American Transplant Congress.

Nidhi Aggarwal, MD, and collaborators at the University of Illinois in Chicago studied 516 living kidney donors with a mean age of 36.4 years. The racial makeup of the group was 41% African American, 24% Caucasian, and 35% Hispanic. Of the 516 donors, 119 had normal weight (body mass index [BMI] below 25 kg/m2), 188 were overweight (BMI 25-29.9), 136 were obese (BMI 30-34.9), and 73 were morbidly obese (BMI 35 kg/m² or greater).

At 12 months after donation, the proportion of patients with hypertension was 7.4%, 10.4%, 5%, and 10% among normal weight, overweight, obese, and morbidly obese individuals, respectively. The proportion of those with proteinuria was 2.3%, 7.8%, 9.8%, and 4.8%, respectively.  The mean estimated glomerular filtration rate at 12 months was 68, 66, 68, and 72 mL/min/1.73 m², respectively.

The investigators cautioned that long-term follow-up studies of obese donors are needed to determine renal outcomes beyond the first year post-nephrectomy.

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