*Purpose: Although live organ donation is a carefully and meticulously planned surgical procedure, live donor organ recovery procedures are occasionally aborted. These include procedures which are terminated after the potential donor receives anesthesia but before the organ is recovered, or in which the live donor organ is recovered but not transplanted into the intended recipient. Some donor candidates may have concerns about this risk; however, little is known about the frequency of these incidents.

*Methods: We used OPTN/UNOS data to identify 106 aborted live donor organ recovery procedures from 1/2006-12/2017. We described the characteristics of living donors whose organ recovery procedure was aborted.

*Results: Most (N=81) aborted recovery procedures were intended nephrectomies, while 20 were intended hepatectomies (Table 1). Intended organ recovery type was not reported for 5 donor candidates. The majority of aborted donors were under the age of 50 (64/96) and white (66/96). There were slightly more female than male donors whose recovery procedure was aborted (44 vs. 52). The number of aborted organ recovery procedures increased slightly over time, from 2 in 2006 to 14 in 2017 (Figure 1).

*Conclusions: Aborted live donor organ recovery procedures are extremely rare. However, the number of aborted recovery procedures has increased over time, despite an overall decline in the number of living organ donors during the same period. Improved documentation of the circumstances surrounding these incidents may be necessary in order to mitigate this risk.

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