GFR One Kidney

[qw098]

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A BOSSMAN decides to donate one of his kidneys. How come his GFR doesn't decrease by 50% as he just has one kidney left? Having a tough time to describe the exact pathophys. Any elaboration and explanation would be highly appreciated. Happy Friday Night 😀

 

[Slade009]

GFR, normally 120 ml/min, is the GFR of all nephrons in both kidneys therefore if you remove one kidney will acutely drop from 120 to 60. Chronically the GFR is compensated by the other nephrons because they raise their individual GFR's by raising their individual glomerular capillary pressures. Thus in conclusion if you lose one of your kidneys your GFR would only drop 25%.

 

[pathologyDO]

GFR, normally 120 ml/min, is the GFR of all nephrons in both kidneys therefore if you remove one kidney will acutely drop from 120 to 60. Chronically the GFR is compensated by the other nephrons because they raise their individual GFR's by raising their individual glomerular capillary pressures. Thus in conclusion if you lose one of your kidneys your GFR would only drop 25%.

^ This

You would initially be decreasing your GFR by 50%, but your remaining kidney will be under more pressure to do more work, so the GFR of the surviving kidney would thus increase. So you would expect higher than 50% of GFR