Before undergoing a renal transplant, a pre-transplant evaluation is necessary to assess your overall health and identify any potential issues. This evaluation is crucial as it allows the Renal Transplant Team to take steps to prevent any problems before and after the surgery, thereby reducing the risk of complications. Prior to the evaluation, a letter will be sent to you and your physician to collect important medical information. Your physician is required to provide the necessary information before the transplant team can proceed with the evaluation.
To evaluate a patient’s health status before a renal transplant, various tests and studies are necessary. The Kamineni Hospital’s kidney transplant team will schedule an evaluation upon receipt of the test results. Kidneys for transplantation can come from living donors, usually immediate family members or sometimes spouses, or cadaver donors who have willed their kidneys before death or whose families have given permission for donation at the time of death. All donors undergo careful screening to ensure a suitable match and prevent any transmissible diseases or complications.
During kidney transplantation, a healthy kidney is placed into the body to replace a failing kidney. The new kidney is connected to nearby blood vessels and the bladder, allowing it to function properly. In most cases, the diseased kidneys are not removed, except in certain conditions such as repeated infections that could spread to the transplanted kidney, uncontrollable hypertension caused by the original kidneys, or urine back up into the kidneys.
A successful kidney transplant can provide increased strength, stamina, and energy, allowing patients to return to a more normal lifestyle. They can have a normal diet and fluid intake, and if they were dependent on dialysis before the transplant, they’ll have more freedom from dialysis schedules. Anemia and hypertension, common problems with kidney failure, may also improve after transplantation. After being discharged from the hospital, patients are followed as outpatients in the Transplant Clinic to monitor the function of the transplanted kidney and ensure appropriate medication use.