Renal transplantation is now an accepted treatment of patients in end stage renal failure. A successful transplant restores not merely life but an acceptable quality of life to such patients. Unfortunately in most, if not all, countries the supply of kidneys for transplantation is insufficient to meet the demand.Despite numerous attempts to promote increased organ donation after death, the disparity between graft supply and demand has continued to broaden. As a result, waiting times for kidney transplantation have increased significantly in recent years. Although live donor renal transplantation has offered numerous recipient outcome advantages compared with deceased donor transplantation, significant disadvantages to live donation, including the magnitude of the donor nephrectomy operation, limited the expansion of this source of organs for transplantation.Laparoscopic live donor nephrectomy was developed with the intent to limit these deterrents to live kidney donation by reducing the impact of the operation on the donor’s life.