Increased Risks After Kidney Donation Very Low

Source: Los Angeles Times, February 12, 2014 A recent study in JAMA assessed the absolute risk a kidney donor faces after the operation and the added risk incurred as a result of it. Although the added risks from donating a kidney are very low, Scott Halpern comments that “people are notoriously bad” at weighing increased risks of unwanted outcomes against a very low probability that it will ever happen. He also offers that in order to help prospective donors make the right decision, transplant surgeons should ask them to focus on how low the probability of the poor outcome is to begin with.