Patients must meet certain basic criteria in order to be considered a potential transplant candidate. These criteria are different depending upon the type of organ(s) needed. These basic criteria are just the initial indicators. All patients are fully evaluated by the transplant team to determine if transplantation is the best treatment option.

A living donor transplant is a procedure during which a kidney is removed from a healthy donor and surgically placed in an individual with kidney failure. The living donor often is an immediate family member (parent, sibling, or child). The living donor can also be an uncle, aunt, cousin.

A kidney transplant is a surgical procedure that has been done to treat kidney failure. The kidneys filter waste from the blood and remove it from the body through urine. They also help maintain body’s fluid and electrolyte balance. If kidneys stop working, waste builds up in the body and can make patient sick.
People whose kidneys have failed usually undergo a treatment called dialysis. This treatment mechanically filters waste that builds up in the bloodstream when the kidneys stop working. Some patients whose kidney have failed may qualify for a kidney transplant.

In this procedure, one or both kidneys are replaced with donor kidneys from a living or deceased person.
Kidney transplant surgery is among the most commonly performed organ surgeries to date. The surgical procedure is performed when a person’s kidneys lose their proper function leading to end-stage renal disease. This condition requires a healthy donor kidney to be placed next to the old kidneys through transplant surgery. A single kidney is sufficient for the body to restore its renal functions.

One risk of a kidney transplant is that patient’s body will reject (fight) the new kidney. This can happen if patient’s immune system realizes that the kidney is from someone else. Though kidney transplants are often successful, there are some cases when patient’s body may refuse to accept the donated kidney shortly after it is placed in your body. It is also possible that the new kidney may stop working overtime.

Your immune system, which protects your body from germs and harmful cells, recognizes new kidney as a foreign tissue, and may try to reject it.  To help prevent new kidney from being rejected, your doctor will give you immunosuppressants, which are medicines that decrease patient’s immune response so that the body is less likely to reject your new kidney.

• Feeling like having flu, body aches, chills, headache and more
• Fever of 101° F or higher
• Urinating less than usual
• Extremely high blood pressure
• Sudden weight gain
• Ankle swelling
• Pain or tenderness over the area where your transplant was done
• Feeling very tired