Living Kidney Donation
When is a Kidney Transplant Needed?
A person’s both kidneys are not usually removed and replaced with a single kidney unless there is a medical reason to do so. Kidney transplantation becomes necessary when renal failure becomes irreversible. When both the kidneys of a person stop functioning as in end stage renal disease(ESRD), considering kidney transplant becomes inevitable. A transplant is not done in acute kidney disease, when a kidney is failed and the other is still functioning properly.
Living Donor Kidney Transplant
In a living donor kidney transplant, a kidney from a healthy donor is removed and placed into the patient with end stage renal disease. Only one kidney from a living healthy donor replaces the two failed kidneys, thus making living kidney donation an alternate to deceased donor transplant.
In 2018,an estimated 95,479 kidney transplants were performed worldwide, 36% of which came from living donors (2). Living kidney donation transplant has the following benefits over the deceased donor transplant:
In deceased donor transplantation, a person’s name is placed on a waiting list and it may take years to find a suitable match. It becomes very difficult for a person with kidney failure to wait for years. In a living donor transplant, less time is spent on waiting which prevents further complications and deterioration of the recipient’s health.
Avoidance of dialysis if not initiated yet.
Better short and long term survival rates
Deceased kidney transplant is an unscheduled, emergency procedure while in living kidney donation, the transplant is scheduled in advance by a doctor as soon as you find your donor.
The potential risks in considering kidney donation transplants are more or less the same in both types. They may include risks associated with the surgery, autoimmune organ rejection, and side effects of anti-rejection medications.
What to Expect?
While considering a kidney transplant, the major thing to consider is organ rejection and compatibility. The recipient must remain on immunosuppressant for the rest of their life to prevent their bodies from rejecting a newly placed kidney. In living kidney donation transplant, the donor is usually someone you know like a relative, friend, or coworker. Genetically related family members are more likely to be compatible living kidney donors.
Both the donor and the recipient in living kidney donation are thoroughly evaluated medically for compatibility. In general, the recipient’s blood and tissue type need to be compatible with the donor. However, if they don’t match, the transplant can still be successful with some medical treatments pre and post-transplant to suppress the immune system to avoid rejection.
NKDO is a National Kidney Donation Organization in the United States that helps educate prospective living kidney donors to donate as safely and effectively as possible. We are devoted to helping end the kidney crisis in the country. If you are considering kidney donation, we are here to help you with all the aspects of living kidney donation. For more information, visit our website https://www.nkdo.org/.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09K6MCKRG
https://www.amazon.com.br/dp/B09K6MCKRG
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B09K6MCKRG
https://www.amazon.in/dp/B09K6MCKRG
Why Donate Our Kidney to a Stranger?