How Does
How Is a Kidney Transplant Done?
Donors
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In order to transplant a kidney from a living donor to a recipient, donors are evaluated on health and psychological grounds. The living donor must be disease-free and cannot be involved in the process in order to make a profit. In the past, the donor and the recipient needed to have the same blood type in order to be considered a match, but FDA-approved Cedars Sinai High Dose IVIG therapy can now keep the immune system from rejecting the kidney. Kidneys from deceased donors are also used. Kidneys from brain-dead donors are easier to use than kidneys that are taken after cardiac death has occurred because the kidneys are perfused at the time of harvest. After kidneys are harvested from the deceased recipient, they are placed in cold storage until they are ready to be transplanted into the recipient. If the IVIG procedure or plasmapharesis is not performed, the kidney from the donor and the recipient must be ABO blood group compatible.
The Procedure
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The existing kidney of the recipient is almost never removed. Taking that kidney out of the recipient leads to a high morbidity rate. Instead, the renal artery of the donated kidney is connected to the external iliac artery and the renal vein is connected to the external iliac vein.
The renal artery is normally connected to the abdominal aorta, and the renal vein is normally connected to the inferior vena cava.
After the Operation
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Typical kidney transplant surgery lasts about three hours. If the kidney that is transplanted is of high quality, it should begin to function normally by producing urine almost immediately. It will take 3 to 5 days for it to reach full function when it comes from a living donor and can take as long as 15 days when the kidney comes from a deceased donor.
eHow Article: How Is a Kidney Transplant Done?
