Kidney Transplant Surgery

Kidney transplant surgery has been in the market since several decades. It may not be a very big deal in most cases, but can be more complicated in the presence of other illnesses. The surgeon usually places the donor kidney inside the body, specifically near the pelvis in between the abdomen and upper thigh and connects it to a vein and artery. As blood starts flowing through the transplanted kidney, the urine making process will begin. The new kidney might take some time ranging from days to months to start functioning normally, or it can start working immediately. In most of the cases, the old kidneys are not removed from the body. The surgeon will usually leave a stent instead of the ureter for draining urine to the bladder from the kidney. The physician removes the stent in his/her office with the help of a small flexible scope, usually after 4 to 6 weeks of the surgery.

A kidney transplant surgery typically takes three to six hours. After the surgery, the patient is taken to a specific transplant floor and kept in an ICR section for a span of one or two days. Later, he/she will be transferred to a regular transplant unit for a period of five to seven days. As there might be a risk of getting an infection, visits from family members will be limited. Several intravenous (IV) drains will be removed gradually, as the healthcare team carefully keeps monitoring the patient’s condition.

Rejection and infection are the common complications that may arise. The immune system of the body may reject the kidney viewing it as a foreign agent. There are several anti-rejection drugs administered as well these days to prevent a rejection episode. The patient may have to take immunosuppressant medications for the rest of his/her life to avoid a rejection in future. Most of the kidney transplant recipients live a normal and healthy live after undergoing the surgery.