Every year, around 1.8 lakh persons suffer from kidney failure in India, but the number of kidney transplants done is only around 6000. Poverty is surely a cause of this but not the main one. The basic reason for this lower number of transplants is pure skepticism. Currently, 220,000 people in India are in the necessity of kidney transplants but the fright that the ignorance about the procedure has created keeps most of these people in dilemma. Now, the need is to provide answers to the most questioned things about the subject. Here are 5 basic things to know about kidney transplants.

What is a kidney transplant?

Kidney transplant is an option to treat patients with renal disease of end-stage. Kidney transplantation requires careful thought to know if it is right for one. Kidney transplantation means placing a healthy kidney from a donor into the patient’s body to perform the functions of the failed kidney. In most cases, the failed kidneys are not removed while the new kidney is placed in the pelvic area connected to the nearest blood vessels of the bladder.

What are the types of kidney donors?

There are two types of kidney donors; alive and deceased.

A living donor does not have to be a blood relative, but the potential donors are tested for the conditions of their kidneys and the risk to their own health due to the donation.

Deceased donor kidneys are obtained from people who have expressed their desire to be organ donors and whose family has consented to it.

Proper screening is done to avoid any transmissible disease during the transplant. There are many team members such as transplant coordinators, urologic surgeons, living kidney donor advocates, social workers, financial coordinators, etc.; to take proper of the patient.

What are the requirements of kidney transplantation?

Blood type: – the match of blood type is the most important thing in kidney transplantation. Generally, if you are blood type O, you can donate to anyone and if you are blood type AB, you can receive from anyone. In other types such as A and B, there are certain speculations and complications.

Antibodies: – if the recipient has antibodies that can differentiate self and foreign organ, the transplanted kidney is rejected.

Age: – a live donor must be over 18 years of age

Consent: – live kidney donor must be in the condition to give consent for donation whereas there must a proper consent from the family of a deceased donor for donation.

BMI: – the body mass index of the donor as well as the recipient must be over 30.

What is the Success rate of kidney transplantation?

A successful kidney transplant certainly gives more strength, stamina, and energy in comparison to dialysis. Also, a kidney transplant typically gives more life span compared to dialysis. As obvious as the benefits of kidney transplantation, the risks of kidney transplantation are the same as those of any surgery which include excess bleeding, infection, etc. There are also certain side effects of medicines after transplantation such as being prone to infections due to immune repressors. Moreover, in the majority of cases, rejection of the kidney is treatable if occurs which might include returning to regular dialysis until another transplantation. India is among those countries which are leading in the success rate of kidney transplantation. The success rate of kidney transplants in India is around 90 percent.

What is the cost of kidney transplantation?

The cost of kidney transplantation varies with the conditions such as the type of donor or the type of hospital etc. But India’s cost of transplantation goes usually higher than the affordable range. The cost starts from 9 lakh in a private surgical center.

For more information contact our specialist- Dr. Ravi Bhadania– Kidney specialist, Nephrologist