Kidney transplant

A Kidney transplant is carried out in patients who have little or no kidney activity, i.e. who suffer from renal insufficiency. The advantages of a kidney transplant over dialysis (blood purification) are that a transplanted kidney enables the recipient to improve their quality of life and performance.

What is a kidney transplant?

The kidneys, two bean-shaped organs 12 centimeters long on each side of the body below the chest, have the important task of filtering waste from the blood, converting it into urine and excreting it.

If the kidneys lose this ability, waste products can build up in the body and cause poisoning (uremia). If chronic kidney failure occurs, the patient is either on regular dialysis or on Kidney transplant reliant.

A kidney transplant is the surgical transplantation of a healthy kidney from either a deceased brain-dead or a living healthy donor into the body of a recipient with a kidney disease. The diseased kidneys are not removed and the donor kidney is implanted in the groin region in the lower abdomen. A single kidney can take over the functions of both organs.

Kidneys from the deceased, known as post-mortem kidney donations, are allocated by the international Eurotransplant switching center. A new transplant kidney works like a healthy kidney, but often with slight functional impairment.

Function, effect & goals

For one Kidney transplant Patients with chronic kidney failure requiring dialysis are considered. Transplantation has been shown to extend the life expectancy of patients with chronic kidney disease, despite the risks associated with surgery.

However, transplantation poses significantly higher risks for patients over the age of seventy and is therefore rarely performed in older people. Incurable cancer and other serious diseases or acute inflammations also speak against a kidney transplant.

Due to a lack of organs, there are often years of waiting for a donor kidney. Children receive a waiting time bonus, and donor kidneys can usually be found more quickly for patients with more frequent blood types. If a suitable donor organ is available or a suitable relative or loved one is willing to donate living life, the kidney transplant can be performed. The operation, performed under general anesthesia, takes between three and four hours. The donor kidney is implanted in the right or left lower abdomen, whereby its blood vessels are connected to the veins and arteries of the pelvis for optimal blood flow. The new kidney is connected to the urinary bladder for urine drainage.

To determine whether the kidney transplant was successful after the procedure, the patient's blood is checked for decreases in creatinine and urea. If this is the case, it means that the body is being detoxified by the new kidney and urine output is normal again.

After a kidney transplant, a patient usually remains in the hospital for about two weeks, where immunosuppressive therapy is also started to prevent organ rejection. After discharge, follow-up examinations are carried out several times a week, in which various laboratory values ​​and the amount of urine are checked.

When it is ensured that the transplant kidney takes on about half the function of two healthy kidneys, the kidney transplant is considered successful. Nevertheless, regular follow-up examinations and strict adherence to immunosuppressive therapy are still necessary.

Risks & dangers

Although the Kidney transplant is now a relatively safe operation, as with any surgical procedure there are risks for the patient, e.g. Risk of bleeding or cardiac arrhythmia, and after the operation there is a risk of insufficient blood supply to the leg on the transplant side or of adhesions in the abdominal cavity.

After a kidney transplant, there is always a lifelong risk that the transplant kidney will be rejected. After a kidney transplant, every patient is forced to take immunosuppressive (immune system-weakening) drugs for the rest of their life to prevent organ rejection. Despite everything, intolerance reactions to the foreign organ cannot always be avoided. Infection or chronic failure of the graft kidney can also occur.

The use of drugs for immunosuppression has serious side effects, including a general immune system weakness, a general increased risk of infection, e.g. the risk of developing pneumonia and an increased long-term risk of developing cancer - especially certain types of skin cancer or lymphatic cancer. The functionality of the transplanted kidney deteriorates over the years, with living donor kidneys being functional longer than post-mortem kidney donations.