Transplanting kidneys with stones may be safe

Results from a Mayo Clinic study suggest that using kidneys with kidney stones for living donor transplant has little impact on the organ’s function one year later.

“This shows that a small kidney stone should not preclude people from being donors,” said George Chow, a Mayo Clinic urologist and senior investigator of the study. “It's not likely for the stones to grow if transplanted.”

Mayor Clinic urology fellow Khai-Linh Van Ho agreed.

“This is good news,” he said. “We found the stones did not affect the function of the kidney. As far as we know with 26 months of follow-up, we’ve had no loss of kidneys from obstruction. The grafted kidney survival rate was 97 percent — the same as the national survival rate for living kidney donation. That's relatively safe.”

A shortage of available kidneys prompted the Mayo Clinic to look into the issue — especially since mortality rates can be high for patients relying on dialysis. The Mayo Clinic cited a 50 percent mortality rate within five years of a patient beginning dialysis.

Transplantation of a kidney with stones would only occur with the full consent of the donor, recipient and transplant surgeon, and only after all parties undergo in-depth discussion about the kidney and any potential risks, physicians said.

One out of 10 Americans develops kidney stones. Ten percent of those with stones do not show symptoms.

(AScribe Newswire and the Mayo Clinic)