Risks associated with kidney donor

This data is from WaitList Zero, an advocacy site for kidney donors.

• Chance of death during surgery:
• Risk of death in surgery is 0.031% (3.1 in 10,000) for all donors.
• Risk of death in surgery is 0.013% (1.3 in 10,000) for donors without hypertension.
• Risks from surgery related complications: Based on 2010 study with 6331 donor between 1995 and 2005 findings were 
• Kidney donation was associated with an 18.4% complication rate.
• Reported complications included bleeding (4.3%), infection (4.2%); and respiratory, (4.5%), Gastro-intestinal, (6.1%) urinary (1.7%) tract complications.
• Complications were most pronounced in older, obese, and hypertensive donors.
• High volume hospitals (>50/year) were associated with significantly lower complication rates.

Here is a sobering article from NPR  on organ donation consequences for some donors. The article is stating that the data on long term effect of donation on donors is scant and advocates that the system should track donors for a longer period and more consistently to monitor for long term effects.