Kidney transplant

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Kidney transplantation is the transfer of a healthy kidney from one person (the donor) into the body of a person who has little or no kidney activity (the recipient). A person needs only one kidney to survive (indeed some people are born with only one working kidney). So the donor can be living, or recently deceased.

There are two main problems with kidney transplantation. First, there is a shortage of organs from people who have died, so that not everyone with kidney failure receives a transplant, even if they are medically suitable.

This shortage can be partially made up by using living donors, usually blood relatives or partners of the person with kidney failure. The second problem with kidney transplantation is that the recipientâ€™s body recognises the transplant as if it were an invader, and tries to destroy it. This is called rejection.

The recipient of a kidney transplant has to take a powerful cocktail of drugs to prevent rejection and treat the complications of the anti-rejection drugs.