[Assessment and selection of kidney living donors].

Donor protection should always be taken account during the selection and assessment of a living donor. On these terms, the evaluation of a potential donor must include these issues: 1) The donor act is altruistic, consciousness and out of coercion; 2) Life expectancy and quality of life of the recipient will improve after the living donor kidney transplantation; 3) The donor has normal renal function and the potential risk of developing nephropathy in the long term follow up is scarce (familiar nephropathies and other processes that may increase the potential risk for renal disease in the future, like severe hypertension, diabetes, etc must be ruled out). The glomerular filtrate should meet criteria for the normal function corresponding to age furthermore the absence of proteinuria and urine smear is normal; 4) The screening in the donor should contemplate those clinical situations or diseases non related to the kidney function but might elevate the surgical and/or anesthesia risk besides disease transmission to the recipient (as neoplasia or infections); 5) The surgical act is possible without technical difficulties and always performed after a negative result of the crossmatch between donor and recipient.