Health encyclopaedia - Alphabetical Topic List
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Results of Kidney transplant
At one year after kidney transplantation, over 9 out of 10 transplants are still working, and over 9 out of 10 patients are still alive. At 5 years after a transplant, about 6 out of 10 transplants are working and 8 out of 10 patients are alive.
Many kidney transplants, if there are no rejection episodes and the recipient takes their anti-rejection drugs regularly, will work for 20 years or more.
Recipients of kidney transplants can develop other problems. Diseases of the circulation are common, because of the effects of kidney failure and the anti-rejection drugs.
It is important that transplant patients try to stop smoking, keep to a healthy diet and have their blood pressure and cholesterol levels monitored. The anti-rejection drugs increase the risk of getting certain types of cancer, especially in the skin (avoid direct sunlight) and neck of the womb (cervix), so women should have regular cervical smears.
The results of kidney transplantation have improved immensely over the last 20 years, and will probably continue to improve, with better understanding of anti-rejection drugs, and the introduction of newer anti-rejection drugs.
Research is very active into new ways of performing transplantation, by using animal organs, or growing new kidneys from ‘stem cells’. It does not seem likely that either of these techniques will be widely used before 2008 at the earliest, and there is no guarantee that they will ever be successful.
