What Is Kidney Transplant?
When your kidneys fail, treatment is needed to replace the work your own kidneys can no longer do. Kidney transplant is one of the treatments. A kidney transplant is a surgical procedure to place a healthy kidney from a live or deceased donor into a person whose kidneys no longer function properly.
Who can get a kidney transplant?
Kidney patients of all ages from children to seniors can get a transplant.
You must be healthy enough to have the operation. Also you must be no cancer and infection. Every person being considered for transplant will get a full medical and psychosocial evaluation to make sure that they are a good candidate for transplant. This evaluation can help find any problems and then corrected before transplant. For most people, kidney transplant is considered to be a good treatment choice.
Where do donated kidneys come from?
A donated kidney can come from someone who died and donated a healthy kidney. It is called a deceased donor.
Also donated kidneys can come from a living donor. This person may be a blood relative like a brother or sister, or non-blood relative like a husband or wife. They can also come from a friend or even a stranger.
What does the operation involve?
Your own kidneys are not taken out when you get a transplant. The surgeon leaves them where they are unless there is a medical reason to remove them. The donated kidney is placed into your lower abdomen. The operation takes about four hours. You will be sore at first, but you should be out of bed in a day or so, and home within a week. If the kidney came from a living donor, it should start to work very quickly. A kidney from a deceased donor can take longer to start working-two to four weeks or more. In that case, you need dialysis until the kidney begins to work.
After surgery, you have to take anti-rejection medicines and also you will be taught about their side effects. Anti-rejection medicines is to stop your body from attacking or rejecting the donated kidney. Without them, your immune system would see the donated kidney as foreign, and would attack and destroy it.
Are there any risks of having a kidney transplant?
Yes. The risks of having a kidney transplant include:
Rejection of the new kidney
Severe infection
Severe infection
Bleeding
Reaction to the anesthesia used for surgery
Failure of the donor kidney
Note: 7 days' Foot Bath is a small course of treatment, and 49 days' is a big course.
Is everyone able to have a kidney transplant?
Not everyone is able to have a kidney transplant. You will not usually have a kidney transplant if you have an active infection or another life-threatening disease like cancer or significant heart or lung disease.
