- With Mayo Clinic urologist
Erik P. Castle, M.D.
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Erik P. Castle, M.D.
Erik P. Castle, M.D.
Dr. Erik Castle is a board-certified urologist who joined the Mayo Clinic staff in Arizona in 2007.
Dr. Castle is an associate professor of urology at College of Medicine, Mayo Clinic, and a senior associate consultant in the Department of Urology, where he also is assistant residency coordinator.
He was an assistant professor in the Department of Urology at Tulane University in New Orleans from 2004 to 2006 after serving as a clinical instructor/fellow at Mayo Clinic in Arizona for one year.
Dr. Castle's research interests include prostate cancer, bladder cancer and kidney cancer. He is the director of the Desert Mountain Prostate Cancer Research Fund and is the principal investigator of Castle labs housed at the Samuel C. Johnson Medical Research Building at Mayo Clinic in Arizona. His basic science research is focused on novel secondary hormonal therapies of prostate cancer as well as genomics of prostate and bladder cancers.
His surgical expertise includes laparoscopic urology, robot-assisted radical prostatectomy with nerve sparing, robot-assisted radical cystectomy with neobladder, robot-assisted retroperitoneal lymph node dissection, robot-assisted partial nephrectomy and other robotic urologic oncology procedures. He has performed many of these procedures as demonstrations internationally. He is a member of the American Association of Clinical Urologists, the American Urological Association, the Endourological Society, and the Society of Laparoendoscopic Surgeons. He is past president of the international Society of Urologic Robotic Surgery. He is also the director of the international laparoscopic nephrectomy courses throughout Mexico on behalf of the American Urologic Association.
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Question
Kidney donation: Are there long-term risks?
I'm considering kidney donation. Are there long-term risks?
Answer
from Erik P. Castle, M.D.
Research has shown that there's little long-term risk for kidney donation, provided you're carefully screened before becoming a donor. As a potential kidney donor, you'll receive a thorough medical exam to determine whether you're a good match for the potential recipient. And you'll be carefully checked to make sure you don't have any health problems that might be made worse by donating a kidney.
Kidney donation involves major surgery, and there are risks including bleeding and infection. After your kidney is removed (nephrectomy), you'll spend time recovering in the hospital and at home. With time, your remaining kidney will enlarge as it takes on additional blood flow and filtration of wastes.
Your long-term survival rate, quality of life, general health status and risk of kidney failure are about the same as that for people in the general population who aren't kidney donors. Regular checkups, including monitoring of your kidney function and blood pressure, generally are recommended to evaluate your health after kidney donation.
- Carpenter CB, et al. Transplantation in the treatment of renal failure. In: Fauci AS, et al. Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine. 17th ed. New York, N.Y.: The McGraw Hill Companies; 2008. http://www.accessmedicine.com/resourceTOC.aspx?resourceID=4. Accessed April 13, 2011.
- Treatment measures for kidney failure: Transplantation. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. http://kidney.niddk.nih.gov/kudiseases/pubs/transplant/index.htm#process. Accessed April 13, 2011.
- Segev DL, et al. Perioperative mortality and long-term survival following live kidney donation. Journal of the American Medical Association. 2010;303:959.
- Foley RN, et al. Long-term outcomes of kidney donors. Current Opinion in Nephrology and Hypertension. 2010;19:129.
- Clemens J, et al. The long-term quality of life of living kidney donors: A multicenter cohort study. American Journal of Transplantation. 2011;11:463.
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