What is Kidney Transplantation
   
 
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Transplantation is the act of surgically removing a kidney from one person and placing it into a recipient.
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The failed kidneys are rarely removed from the body. Instead the new kidney is placed below the existing two, near the hip.
 
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The new kidney’s blood vessels are joined to those supplying the recipient’s leg and its ureter is attached to the bladder.
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Kidney transplant has a high success rate – over 94 per cent of kidney transplants are working one year after the operation.
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Recipients of successful transplants consistently report a better quality of life than those undergoing Peritoneal Dialysis or Haemodialysis.
   
 
Steps to Kidney Transplantation
 
Kidney transplantation is the treatment of choice for people with kidney failure. This allows patients to stop dialysis, decrease their fluid and diet restrictions, and enjoy a much better quality of life. There is no time limit to having a kidney transplant and some people can stay on haemodialysis till the end of their lives.

Usually, a perfect match is from a brother or sister. The chance of getting a perfect match from a living-related brother or sister is higher than from other related or non-related living donors.
 
There are two sources for kidney transplants.
 
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A living donor
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Non-living donor Patients who have had kidneys donated from living donors usually enjoy higher success rates than those who receive organs from non-living donors, since there is less chance for rejection.
   
 
Eligibility criteria
 
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There are no strict age restrictions for kidney;
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However, patients over 65 years must be in relatively good health other than the kidney disease for which they are undergoing a transplant.
 
Prospective transplant recipients undergo a medical evaluation, to determine whether they can successfully tolerate the surgery and the concomitant immunosuppression. Generally, transplantation will not be considered in a patient whose underlying medical condition includes an uncontrolled malignancy or an expected survival of less than five years.
   
 
Evaluation for kidney transplant
 
Donors and recipients are matched based on their blood type and whether the recipient has antibodies that would react with and damage the donor's kidney.
 
For your new kidney to work properly, you and the donor's kidney must be "compatible." To determine compatibility, three tests are done:
 
 
• ABO (blood type) Compatibility
 
• Cross match Compatibility
 
• Human Leukocyte Antigens (HLA) Tissue Typing
   
 
The evaluation consists of the following:
 
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The transplant evaluation consists of a review of your medical records and a complete physical by the transplant nephrologist.
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You will have a chest X-ray and ECG.
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Blood work will be drawn for routine studies and infectious disease testing.
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You will be given information concerning the transplant process, and have an opportunity to ask questions.
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You are encouraged to learn as much as possible about transplantation before making a decision about having a kidney transplant.
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The members of the transplant team will explain the benefits and risks of transplantation.
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After your evaluation, members of the transplant team will meet to review your case.
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They will decide as a group if further testing is necessary before any decision regarding transplantation can be reached.
   
 
The risks and possible complications of transplant are similar to those associated with any surgical procedure.

The initial recovery time after the surgery is four to eight weeks. However, receiving a transplant carries a long-term commitment to ensure that the kidney continues to function. The recipient must be diligent in following the transplant team’s plan of post-operative care or the transplanted kidney may be rejected or lost due to other complications.

It is important that a prospective kidney transplant recipient understands that the process does not end with the surgery, immunosuppressant medication will have to be taken daily for life so that the new kidney will not be rejected.

Also, the patient should be seen regularly by the nephrologist for life, on average this would be every three months. A patient's blood tests and other lab results are monitored very closely in the months immediately after transplant.
 
There are some possible post-transplant complications and they include:
 
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Infections
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Delayed graft function
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High blood pressure
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Weight gain
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Rejection
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Cancer