Background:

Currently there are no studies that determine the safety and quality of life of kidney donors in Mexico.

Objective:

To determine the safety of being a kidney donor and the quality of life, comparing the open approach with hand-assisted laparoscopic technique.

Method:

Observational, cross-sectional, analytical study of the kidney donors in our hospital from January 2015 to December 2018, in two groups: open technique and hand-assisted laparoscopic. To determine safety, the Clavien-Dindo scale and transoperative bleeding were used, and the SF-36 health-related quality of life questionnaire was applied.

Results:

There are no reports of peri-operative complications in any type of approach. All the patients obtained a grade I in the Clavien-Dindo scale. When the difference in the score of the SF-36 health-related quality of life questionnaire in kidney donor patients with hand-assisted laparoscopic surgical approach versus open approach was compared, a difference between both means of 14.05 was obtained, with p < 0.0001 in favor of the hand-assisted approach.

Conclusions:

Being a kidney donor is safe and the approach that we recommend is hand-assisted laparoscopic nephrectomy.