Scrotal Swelling After Kidney Donation
- Donating a kidney is one of the moast precious gifts you can give someone.
- The scientists analyzed the medical records of men who had been living kidney donors in Ontario, Canada.
- "Donors, past and future, have to be informed about the risk so that they know the symptoms to monitor after donation," they write in the work published on...
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Kidney Donation Linked to Increased Risk of Scrotal Swelling in Men
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Donating a kidney is one of the moast precious gifts you can give someone. But that action could exact an unheralded price for men. A research paper published today finds that many male kidney donors will later need surgery to fix their swollen scrotums.
The scientists analyzed the medical records of men who had been living kidney donors in Ontario, Canada. They found that almost one in eight will eventually require surgery to resolve fluid buildup in their scrotums.The researchers say that this finding does not have to discourage kidney donation, but they do emphasize that we must be aware of this potential complication.
“Donors, past and future, have to be informed about the risk so that they know the symptoms to monitor after donation,” they write in the work published on Monday in Annals of Internal Medicine.
Scrotal Swelling
Our bodies have two kidneys, although we only need one to function normally. This means that the kidneys are one of the few parts of the body that we can donate while alive (we can also donate parts of other organs such as the liver or lungs).
Studies have found that the average kidney donor lives provided that they would have lived without donating, with probably almost no effect on their long-term health.But all surgery has potential risks, in the short and long term.
In general, kidney donation is done by laparoscopic nephrectomy, with small incisions in the abdomen, a surgery safer and that it involves a shorter recovery than open surgery. But doctors have noticed that some male donors develop a fluid-filled sac in their scrotum after surgery, which is known as hydrocele. The accumulation of fluid surrounds the testicle and appears on the same side as the surgery.
Sometimes the situation resolves itself, especially if it occurs in young children. but in adults it is more likely to persist and cause noticeable swelling, discomfort and pain. In more severe cases, surgery is required to drain or remove the hydrocele.
Although the complication occurs in men who donate a kidney, researchers say theirs is one of the first studies to look at how often the problem that requires long-term surgery arises.
They analyzed linked health system data for residents of Ontario, Canada (the country provides universal health coverage, making it easier to study population health).