Patients and Study Design

This retrospective analysis utilized data from our institutional electronic database (TBase©) of LDN at Charité Universitaetsmedizin Campus Mitte (Berlin, Germany) between February 2006 and June 2012. Paediatric LDN were excluded from this study. Data were collected and approved according to the guidelines of the institutional review board “Ethikkomission Charité” (Berlin, Germany) which based on the ICH Guideline for Good Clinical Practice and the declaration of the World Medical Association from 1964 (Helsinki) in their current version. Patient consent for review of medical records was not required because all data were de-identified. Therefore, all patient data were treated anonymously.

All living kidney donations were conducted voluntarily with a written informed consent of the donor in accordance to the Declaration of Istanbul before surgery. Every donor and recipient agreed for lifetime aftercare recording medical records in the electronic TBase© System for research. Our previous study describes the preoperative evaluation of living donors, the surgical techniques including laparoscopic approach via a 4-port transperitoneal access and our immunosuppression regime.13