Transplantation

• Kidney transplants

• Liver transplants

• Heart & heart/lung transplants

• Other types of transplant

Kidney transplants

The diseases that most often create a need for kidney transplantation are diabetes, hypertension, glomerulonephritis (inflammation of the kidneys), and polycystic kidney disease leading to kidney failure. People with these diseases who have failing kidneys have to undergo regular treatment with an artificial kidney called hemodialysis. Dialysis is used to replace the natural function of your native kidneys; however, dialysis is associated with a number of complications and a decreased quality of life. Additionally, dialysis will unfortunately decrease a person’ s life expectancy compared to the normal population.
Kidney transplantation is the best treatment possible for kidney failure. It can improve quality of life dramatically and increases life expectancy.
One year after transplantation of a kidney from a living donor, greater than 90% of transplants are still functioning well. After 5 years, over 80% are still healthy and overcome any need for dialysis.

In some people who have severe insulin-dependent diabetes, the donor’ s pancreas may be transplanted at the same time as the kidney transplant. This helps to stop the diabetes from damaging the new kidney.

 

Liver transplant

For people with serious liver disease, transplantation can sometimes be the only effective treatment available. The most common cause for a liver transplant is cirrhosis. Cirrhosis is caused by many different types of liver injuries that destroy healthy liver cells and replace them with scar tissue. Cirrhosis can be caused by viruses such as hepatitis B and C, alcohol, autoimmune liver diseases, buildup of fat in the liver, and hereditary liver diseases.

Fortunately, waiting lists for liver transplants are shorter than for kidneys. At 1 year, around 80% of liver transplants are working well. This falls to about 65-70% after 5 years.

Transplant surgeons have also developed other techniques to provide new liver tissue, including splitting a donor liver in half to transplant into two recipients, or taking part of a parent’ s liver and transplanting it to their child. Living donation of liver tissue is now also becoming an option for adult recipients.

Learn more about what I need to know about Liver transplantation

 

Heart & heart/lung transplants

Coronary heart disease is one of the major causes of early death today. Heart transplantation is an effective option: 85% of heart transplants are still working well after a year, and almost 70% after 5 years. However, because there is only a limited supply of donor hearts, many people who could potentially benefit from heart transplantation are not placed on the waiting list.

Combined heart/lung transplants are less common, and are usually carried out in people who have cystic fibrosis. Additionally, a small number of lung-only transplants are undertaken for patients with chronic lung disorders.

 

Other types of transplant

For certain people with insulin-dependent diabetes, a pancreas transplant may improve their production of insulin and reduce the risk of diabetic complications. This may be undertaken in conjunction with a simultaneous kidney transplant from the same donor, since kidney damage is a frequent complication of diabetes.

As transplantation develops, other procedures are also being developed. A number of centers now perform small bowel transplants to replace damaged sections of gut in people with severe inflammatory bowel disease. Multiple transplants combining several organs have also been carried out occasionally.

 

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