A kidney transplant is a surgical procedure in which a healthy donated kidney is transplanted into your body. A successful kidney transplant will allow you to return to a more normal lifestyle and will free you from dialysis treatments. However, a kidney transplant is not a cure. It is the treatment of choice for kidney failure for those who are considered suitable candidates for a transplant.

To find out if you are a candidate, your healthcare team will perform a series of tests as part of a complete medical assessment. Kidney transplantation is typically classified as deceased-donor (formerly known as cadaveric) or living-donor transplantation depending on the source of the recipient organ.

Living donors are carefully evaluated to make sure they are medically and psychologically able to donate their kidneys for kidney transplant. The living donor transplant used to be done via an open procedure but it is now increasingly done through laparoscopic surgery, which is easier to tolerate. Kidneys from living donors have a better success rate than do kidneys from deceased donors.

Kidney transplant from deceased donors can come from those whose hearts are still beating but are brain dead, as well as from non-heartbeating donors. The kidney can survive on ice for several hours before transplant so that technically, a person can be deceased and still donate their kidneys. The kidney is then kept in a cold solution prior to donation. The best organs for kidney transplant come from the brain dead donors.

Doctors judge compatibility for kidney transplant by assessing the ABO blood type of the donor and recipient as well as the HLA and minor antigens. If many of these match, the risk of rejecting the transplant and further dialysis is much decreased. In addition, immunosuppressants are used to keep the immune system in check. In the US, only about 17% of transplants have no HLA mismatch whatsoever. This improves the success rate remarkably.

Because kidneys can be kept cold for several hours, the kidney transplant is usually done in a different place from where it was harvested. In addition, the kidney is also placed in a different place from where a normal kidney would be. The most common spot for kidney transplant is the iliac fossa in the lower abdomen. The blood supply must come from somewhere other than the renal artery.

In situations where the kidney transplant recipient is a diabetic, the pancreas is also sometimes transplanted at the same time in order to turn around some of the diabetes the individual has. This almost always requires a deceased donor although partial pancreas transplants in living donors has been done. The patient can also receive a kidney transplant first, followed by a pancreas transplant at a later date.

People who receive a transplant must take medication and be monitored by a physician who specializes in kidney disease (nephrologist) for the rest of their lives. That’s reason you should know about myfortic® and CellCept®, it delivers the same highly effective immunosuppressive drug called mycophenolic acid (MPA). The difference between myfortic and CellCept is that myfortic is an enteric-coated formulation of MPA in a delayed-release tablet. If you want to get some excellent resources on kidney, please visit MyFortic.com to learn about myfortic (mycophenolic acid) a kidney transplant medication , and find information on kidney transplant.