Kidney Transplant

What is it?

Kidney transplantation prolongs and improves the life and comfort of the patients by transplanting a new healthy kidney into the patient’s body in case the kidney functions lose their function. The function of the kidneys is to filter waste products from the blood (resulting in the formation and excretion of urine), but it also has an enzymatic role involved in the production of red blood cells and the regulation of blood pressure.

In case of end-stage renal failure, the patient must undergo dialysis sessions. These sessions are very demanding.

Kidney transplantation involves removing a kidney in good working order (alive or brain dead) from a donor subject and transplanting it into a sick patient who is a recipient subject.

How is the validity of the transplantation of the patient who donated a kidney ensured?

Presumed consent: expulsion can be considered as long as the person has not expressed his lifelong refusal (registration on the rejection list); in the absence of information, the doctor must try to collect his will from the testimonies of family members.

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What is the technique?

In most cases, the recipient’s own kidneys are left in place. The transplanted kidney is placed in a different location from the original kidney, usually in one of the two iliac fossae. Generally, the donor kidney is placed on the contralateral side of the recipient (for example, the left kidney is transplanted on the right side). The process takes an average of 3-4 hours. The renal vein and the renal artery are connected to the external iliac veins. Then the ureter (the channel through which urine travels) is connected to the bladder.

Complications

Transplant rejection (hyperacute, acute or chronic)

Viral and bacterial infections (aggravated by immunosuppressive drugs)

Lymphoproliferative syndromes (long term cancer of the white blood cells, these are a direct consequence of immunosuppression)

An imbalance of electrolytes such as calcium and phosphate can lead to bone problems, for example.

These complications are managed adaptively by increasing (rejection) or decreasing (infections, lymphoproliferative syndromes) immunosuppression.