Question: Would it be possible for a doctor to tell if a patient's kidney has been removed for donation purposes, or because of illness (infection, tumor, whatever)? The patient is a boy in his late teens, and the doctor isn't examining him in a hospital setting -- though she has a portable X-ray machine and other equipment at her disposal. ETA: Gah, forgot to mention that his kidney will be missing because it's been donated. So I can't have the doctor discovering other injuries and going "oh his kidney was probably removed thanks to all these stab wounds" or whatever *laughs*
Setting: USA, sometime in the not-so-distant future. Yay for writing sci-fi without really specifying a year >_<
Search terms: I've browsed through a number of medical sites about kidney donation and removal, but have been unable to find an answer to my question. Terms searched for were "kidney donation/removal", "transplant differences", "donation versus removal", "different procedures", and so on.
tired