Kidney Transplant In India With Highest Success Rates

What is a Kidney Transplant?

A kidney transplant is a surgery that involves transferring a healthy kidney from a living or deceased donor to someone whose kidneys are no longer functioning properly.

When your kidneys lose their ability to filter, harmful fluid levels and waste accumulate in your body, which may increase your blood pressure and result in kidney failure.

What are the sources of Kidney Transplants?

Donor kidneys come from two primary sources: deceased and living donors. Deceased donors refer to patients with no heartbeat due to head injury. Generally, relatives of such patients provide their organs and it is one of the greatest acts of charity as many people await transplants, and organs of such patients are always in high demand.

Alternatively, kidneys can also be sourced from living donors, who fall into two categories:

• Living Related Donors (LRD): LRD is a person closely related to the recipient genetically, most commonly these include the parents, children, or siblings.
• Living Unrelated Donors (LURD): Such donors are not blood-relations but are usually the husband or wife of the recipient or friends.

What is deceased Kidney Transplantation?

In a deceased-donor kidney transplant, a kidney from a person who has recently died is given to a patient in need of a kidney. This kidney is harvested from a patient who has recently passed away, either through the consent of the family or through a donor’s card. 

As for the kidney, either it is placed in an ice solution or it is connected to a machine. The machine supplies oxygen and food to the kidney until the kidney is transplanted in the patient who requires it. 

The two parties are most likely in the same region or locality. This minimizes the duration that the kidney is out of the human body, which is beneficial for the transplant center.

What tests are done before a Kidney Transplantation?

In preparation for a Kidney Transplantation, the healthcare provider may ask you to undergo a series of comprehensive tests to assess your suitability and ensure optimal transplant outcomes. Here are the tests.

What makes a good kidney donor?

In most cases, living-related donors are preferred over other donors because they are biological siblings of the patient in need of a kidney transplant. However, due to improvements in the medical treatments to reduce the chances of rejection, the results of kidney transplants that are done from live unrelated donors are nearly as good as the ones from live related donors. 

Hence, anyone can be considered a donor if their blood type matches. So, most people with excellent health and aged 18 to 60 are potential donors. All living donors are evaluated on an individual basis. 

It is important to note that all prospective kidney donors must provide written confirmation that their decision to donate is voluntary, without any significant compensation.

How does blood group determine the selection of a kidney donor?

Generally, blood groups should be compatible. This is quite complex, but in summary, the person with the blood type of O can donate blood to any person – O is considered to be the universal blood type. 

However, only an individual with blood type A can donate to a patient whose blood type is A; blood type B can only donate to B, and AB only to AB. Regarding the recipient, an individual with the blood type O is allowed to accept only a kidney from a donor with the same blood type O, an individual with the blood type A can accept a kidney from either an A or O donor while an individual with the blood type B can accept a kidney from either a B or O donor.

Why would you require a Kidney Transplant?

A kidney transplant may be necessary for a patient if his/her kidneys are no longer functioning properly or have completely failed.

Also, you may need a kidney transplant if you have kidney disease that has reached an advanced stage or kidney failure and need dialysis to live. Dialysis on the other hand is a process of removing waste products and other unwanted substances from blood.

Certain kidney conditions that can lead to End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) include:

• Diabetic nephropathy or hypertensive nephropathy, is a condition that affects the kidney.
• Other hereditary diseases such as Polycystic kidney disease.
• Glomerulonephritis is a condition characterized by inflammation of the kidney’s filtration structure.
• Hemolytic uremic syndrome – a rather rare disease, which is accompanied by kidney failure.
• Lupus and other related systemic autoimmune diseases.
• Kidney stones, an enlarged prostate or cancer in some parts of the body can hinder the workings of the urinary tract for a long time.
• Some diseases for instance congenital kidney diseases may call for kidney transplantation.

There are other conditions under which your healthcare provider may advise you to undergo a renal transplant.

Paired Exchange Kidney Transplant in India

If the donor and the recipient do not match in living donation, then the option of paired exchange can be utilized. This is where another pair of a donor and recipient are identified and the initial donors continue donating to the other recipients. Thus, all the patients in need of a kidney transplantation will receive the needed organ. 

In some cases, one can come up with a ‘chain’ of recipient/donor pairs in such a way that all the persons involved receive a compatible transplant. 

At times, direct transplantations can be arranged even when the blood group of the recipient and donor is different. Further on, a special treatment for the removal of blood group antibodies from the recipient will be applied in this case.

How to prepare for a Kidney Transplant?

Here are the essential steps and preparations for a successful kidney transplant:

How is a kidney transplanted?

In the process of kidney transplant surgery, a surgeon implants a healthy kidney into your body. You will be given general anesthesia before the surgery. The surgery usually does not exceed 3 to  4 hours. If your damaged kidneys do not lead to infections or high blood pressure, they can be transplanted into the body. Most of the time, a kidney is placed in the lower abdomen just below the umbilicus.

If you are on a waiting list for a donor’s kidney, you need to go to the hospital and undergo the transplant surgery once there is a kidney for you.

If it is a living-related donor, the surgery schedule can be preplanned.  A kidney from a living donor does not need to be shipped from one facility to another; therefore, it may be in good condition as compared to a kidney from a deceased donor. The team of surgeons performing the surgery on you will also operate on your donor at the same time but in different adjoining rooms. One physician will extract the kidney from the donor and the other will get you ready to receive the new kidney.

What are the post-transplant complications?

Kidney transplant surgery carries a risk of significant complications, including:

• Blood clots and bleeding.
• The conditions that result from malfunction of the tube that transfers urine from the kidney to the bladder (ureter).
• Infection.
• Complications of the donated kidney or the recipient’s body rejecting the donated kidney.
• An infection or cancer that the donor may be carrying in the kidney donated to him.
• Death, heart attack, and strokes.

Post-surgical management of kidney transplantation 

A kidney transplant is one of the most successful transplants, but many factors determine its long-term outcome. 

You should:

• Go to your transplant team regularly and listen to what they tell you
• Always take your anti-rejection drugs as recommended by your doctor
• It is advisable to adhere to the schedule of laboratory tests and clinic visits to monitor the health of your kidney

Adopt a good diet, exercise, and ensure that you are not overweight.

What is kidney rejection?

Rejection is the action of your body’s defence mechanisms against your new kidney because it recognizes it as foreign, and therefore a threat. Sometimes even if the kidney donor is compatible, your body still does not accept the new kidney and will attempt to eliminate it. The body attacking the kidney that has been transplanted is called kidney rejection.

Kidney rejection is mostly noticed within the first six months after a transplant surgery but it can happen at any other time. However, your risk for transplant rejection will continue to reduce but will never be zero.

Immunosuppressive drugs are used to stop or treat kidney transplant rejection by suppressing your immune system from attacking the transplanted kidney. Recipients of kidney transplants have to take immunosuppressive drugs. If it happens, the healthcare provider increases the dosage or switches to a different type of immunosuppressive medication.

The doctor can usually spot a kidney rejection early on and treat it before it can do any severe or irreversible harm to the kidneys. You must adhere strictly to the dosages prescribed by the doctor, undergo laboratory tests, and never miss appointments with your doctor after a kidney transplant.

There are two main types of kidney transplant rejection – acute and chronic.