Kidney Transplant Health Feed

Organ donation is the greatest way to save lives. While death takes a person’s life away, their organs can still be donated to save other lives. One organ donor can donate up to 25 organs and tissues, which can save almost 9 lives. Organs such as liver, heart, kidney and pancreas can be donated.

What is organ donation?

Organ donation is the method of surgically removing the organ of the donor and placing it into the recipient. Here, the recipient’s dysfunctional organ is replaced with the proper functioning organ of the donor. These transplants improve the quality of life for the patient and give them another shot at life.

How can it change lives?

Vital organs such as kidney, liver and heart can be transplanted with failing organs. This saves the patient from depending upon expensive treatments for surviving. They can return to their normal lives after a transplant. For example, if a person has a cornea transplant, he or she can regain the ability to see and move properly like others.

In organ donation, the person pledges during his or her lifetime, that their organs can be used for transplantation – after their death – to help other patients live their lives. With advancements in medical science, even the elderly people in their 80s can donate their organs.

Types of organ donation are –

1. Living donation - Here, a live person donates their organ for transplantation to someone else. The donor can be a family member (living related donation) or a relative of the recipient (living unrelated donation). Those who have opted for this will be analyzed to ensure that the organs are functioning properly and are a match. You can give a part of your liver to someone having liver cancer and end-stage liver diseases. Kids with metabolic diseases can also be cured by a liver transplant. You can also donate a kidney to another person whose kidney has failed. This way, both lives are sustained, as a healthy person can survive with one kidney.    
2. Deceased cadaver donation - Here, the patients register and get admitted to a hospital for transplantation. He or she will be put on a waiting list. Then, when the organ is available from a deceased patient, the patient will be notified. Then the transplantation will occur, and thus the patient will be able to live lie normally again.

The following organs can be donated after death –

• Heart

• Liver

• Kidneys

• Pancreas

• Tissue

• Corneas

• Lungs

• Small bowel

People of all ages can become an organ donor. The doctors will check the age and past medical history of the potential donor.

The kidneys are responsible for the elimination of waste from the body. The blood is filtered in the kidneys and all toxic wastes are filtered out and excreted through urine. When this filtration does not happen effectively, a lot of waste can be found in the blood, which affects normal body function.

Kidneys may lose their functioning either due to age, injury, or disease conditions. Whatever the reason, when kidney function is hampered, the body suffers. If there was an injury or congenital problem, it could be unilateral and the non-affected kidney could still do the function. However, if it is infection or old age, normally both kidneys are affected and then replacement should be looked for externally. This is where a kidney transplant comes into the picture.

What is it?

It is a surgery where a healthy, functioning kidney is placed into the body. The donor could be

1. Living: These donors have to be related or unrelated. Related is often termed someone, who is a family member and is willing to donate one kidney (one kidney is sufficient for normal, healthy individuals) to the diseased person.
2. Cadaver: If a person is willing to donate kidneys post death, these are used for transplant, within a specified time.

Identifying the right donor and recipient:

1. Blood type and tissue type should be matched; a good tissue type match improves the chances of success
2. Overall health of the donor to ensure there is no heart disease, lung disease, or diabetes
3. The recipient also should be healthy

What to expect during surgery?

1. Once a donor is identified, in living donors, the surgery to remove the kidney and to transplant it are done simultaneously
2. The surgery usually takes about 3 to 4 hours
3. Antibiotics are given prior to the surgery to prevent infection
4. The blood vessels and ureter are connected back to the kidney after the transplant
5. Hospital stay can range from 5 days to 2 weeks, depending on the overall health of the patient and the anticipated risk of rejection.
6. Most transplanted kidneys work effectively almost immediately. A kidney stored from a cadaver may take a little longer compared to a fresh kidney from a living donor
7. People who have had transplants are put on immunosuppressants on a chronic basis to reduce chances of rejection. The new kidney will always be recognised by the body as a foreign body, and so this is essential.

Kidney transplant success rates are quite high, and more and more people are opting for transplants as opposed to dialysis.